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t>as.*4 

no 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


BOOKS BY 

WILLIAM LEWIS NIDA 


Ab, the Cave Man 
Elementary Agriculture 
Farm Animals 

One Thousand Questions and 
Answers on Agriculture 


Published by 

A FLANAGAN COMPANY 

CHICAGO 





LITTLE WHITE 
CHIEF 


BY 

WILLIAM LEWIS NIDA 

AND 

STELLA HUMPHREY NIDA 


ILLUSTRATED BY 

DOROTHY DULIN 


1923 

A. FLANAGAN COMPANY 

CHICAGO 


COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY A FLANAGAN COMPANY 



SC1A759C58 


PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



CONTENTS 


CHAPTER I 

Two Little Indian Boys. 7 

CHAPTER II 

Indian Legends. 15 

CHAPTER III 

An Indian Home. 20 

CHAPTER IV 

Sign Language and Wampum. 25 

CHAPTER V 

Davy Drummond. 30 

CHAPTER VI 

Davy is Lost. 37 

CHAPTER VII 

Indian Games. 44 

CHAPTER VIII 

Making Bows and Arrows. 52 

CHAPTER IX 

The Buffalo Hunt. 58 

CHAPTER X 

Brave Badger Goes to the Forest. 64 

CHAPTER XI 

The Bear Hunt. 73 

CHAPTER XII 

The Beaver Hunt. 78 

CHAPTER XIII 

White Chief Runs Away. 86 

CHAPTER XIV 

White Chief Returns. 93 

CHAPTER XV 

White Chief Becomes a Hunter. 102 

CHAPTER XVI 

Trouble with the White People. 108 

CHAPTER XVII 

Some New Settlers. 114 

CHAPTER XVIII 

Davy Drummond Comes Home. :.... 121 





















When Fighting Bear and the other braves talked around the camp fire J 

(Page 25) 























LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


CHAPTER I 

TWO LITTLE INDIAN BOYS 

Little Wild Hare was seven years old. His skin 
was very dark and brown and bis little body was 
straight and strong. In warm weather he wore no 
clothes except & band of deerskin about his waist and 
moccasins on his feet. Wild Hare was a bright little 
Indian boy. His mother was called Gentle Pawn. His 
father was Fighting Bear. 

Wild Hare had a brother who was nine years old. 
They lived in a tent on the bank of a river with the 
forest all about them. The tent was made of skins 
and they called it a wigwam. Wild Hare’s brother 
was named Brave Badger. 

There were many birds and squirrels in the trees. 
There were many rabbits in the woods. The little 
Indian boys were old enough to go far into the woods 
alone. They often went hunting with bows and 
arrows. At first they could not shoot straight and 
the arrows had no points. It was not long until 
Brave Badger and Wild Hare had learned to shoot 
straight enough to hit a mark. Their father then put 


8 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 



“They often went hunting” 


points on the arrows. The boys could now go hunt¬ 
ing like big Indians. 

Wise Owl was an old Indian brave who taught the 
Indian boys many things. He made each of them a 
strong, neat bow just long enough for their short 
arms. 

He taught them to make arrows and tip them with 
sharp bone. Each boy wore a quiver on his back to 
carry the arrows. 

Wild Hare was now a good shot. One day he saw 
a rabbit in an open space. He crept up very quietly. 
He did not let the bushes fly back. He put his feet 
down softly so the leaves would not rustle and the 
grass would make no sound under his moccasins. 


TWO LITTLE INDIAN BOYS 


9 


The rabbit was eating a tender leaf. It did not know 
the little red hunter was near. 

Wild Hare took aim with great care. Whiz! The 
arrow flew and the rabbit fell over. Wild Hare 
ran up quickly and seized it in his hands. It was 
quite dead. He took the arrow from the rabbit’s side 
and rubbed it with a leaf and put it back in his quiver. 
Then he hung the rabbit over his shoulder and started 
for the wigwam. 

Brave Badger came running to meet him. Wild 
Hare’s black eyes shone. He pointed proudly to the 
rabbit. It was the first one he had ever killed. Brave 
Badger clapped his hands and ran to tell Wise Owl. 

Wild Hare took the rabbit to his mother, Gentle 
Pawn. Gentle Fawn laughed. She showed Wild 
Hare how to take off the rabbit’s skin and she cooked 
the meat for his dinner. 

Wild Hare and Brave Badger went to the river 
every day. No matter how cold the water was, in 
they plunged. Indian boys must be very strong. 
They learned to swim when they were small. They 
walked and ran many miles every day. The boys 
jumped into the cold water every morning and they 
were proud when their teeth did not chatter. Soon 
they did not mind the chill. 

Wild Hare and Brave Badger played tag in the 


10 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


water. They dived and swam and were never afraid. 

One day they went to hunt ducks’ eggs. They 
waded along the banks and found many nests in the 
reeds. 

They did not stop to cook the eggs. They liked the 
raw eggs and ate all they wanted. 

“We must leave some eggs in the nests,” said 
Brave Badger, “so there will be plenty of young 
ducks. We will catch the young ducks. They are 
very tender and good to eat.” 

“Now let us catch some fish,” cried Wild Hare. 

They found a deep pool of water and lay flat on 
the ground, leaning over it. They looked long into 
the little pool and soon they saw fish swimming 
about. 

Branches of trees hung over their heads so their 
shadows did not scare the fish. But they kept very 
still. They hardly breathed. 

Soon a fish came to the surface of the water. Wild 
Hare put his two hands together and made a cup. 
Very quickly he scooped the fish from the water. 
He put his thumbs over the gills of the fish so it could 
not. breathe. When the fish was quiet, he strung it 
on a reed. 

Brave Badger caught a fish, too. In time they had 
a dozen fine fish strung on the reed and were ready 


TWO LITTLE INDIAN BOYS 


11 


to go home. They were very hungry. The fish would 
make them a good dinner. 

Gentle Fawn said, “Here are my brave fishermen! 
They will be great braves some day because they can 
hunt and fish.” 

Gentle Fawn cooked the fish on some hot stones. 
She was very busy all day. 

She gathered all the wood for the fire and cooked 
the food for her family. 

One morning Wild Hare and Brave Badger went 
out to look in their traps. They had set them all in 
the open ground where the rabbits lived. 

Old Wise Owl had told them to set four traps. He 
said they w< 


He told t 
they would 
that the ( 
Spirit would 
traps. 


if they set ( 
the East ai 
for the Wesl 


They mu* 
two more, c 
the North a 
for the Soutl 



“Scooped the fish from the water” 



12 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


When they came to the first trap Brave Badger ran 
ahead. He was larger than Wild Hare and could 
always beat him in a race. 

The trap was near a bed of wild cabbage where the 
rabbits came to eat. It was made of sticks and strips 
of deerskin. 

Brave Badger’s heart beat high with hope, but 
there was nothing in the trap. He set it again under 
a nice, large leaf of wild cabbage. W T ild Hare w T as 
already running toward the second trap. It had been 
sprung and there were tracks all about it. But there 
was no rabbit. 

“These are not rabbit tracks,” said Brave Badger. 
“A fox has come and stolen him out of the trap. 
Here is some fur.” 

In the grass near by they found where the fox had 
eaten the rabbit. 

“We will have Wise Owl come and make a bigger 
trap and catch the fox,” said Wild Hare. 

“A fox is very sly and hard to catch,” said Brave 
Badger. “It is too bad he got our rabbit. Let us set 
the trap again, but we will set it away from this spot. 
The rabbit will not come where there is the smell 
of the fox.” 

In the third trap Brave Badger found a nice, fat 
rabbit. 


TWO LITTLE INDIAN BOYS 


13 


The trap had fallen on his neck while he was eating 
cabbage leaves. 

“Aha!” called Brave Badger. “We will take him 
home to the wigwam for Gentle Fawn to cook. The 
Chief will call us ‘big Indian braves’ and Wise Owl 
will tell us some tales of the White Rabbit.” 

The fourth trap was broken and there were large 
tracks all about it. 

“These are not fox tracks,” said Brave Badger. 
“I think they are bear tracks. Bears do not eat rab¬ 
bits. The bear has just been smelling around and 
broken the trap.” 

“Let us follow him,” said Wild Hare. 

“Oh, no, he can kill us with his paws. Our arrows 
are not big enough to shoot 
Badger. 

“We are not old enough to 
go bear hunting. When we are 
older and better armed we 
shall then hunt and kill bears.” 

At last all the traps were set 
again and the rabbit hung in 
Brave Badger’s belt. 

“Let us sing a song to the 
Good Spirit so that our traps 
will be filled next time.” 


a bear,” said Brave 



'Found a nice, fat rabbitf 


14 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


So the little boys, Brave Badger and Wild Hare, 
sang: 

“Come to our traps, little White Tails, 

Come quickly, come running, 

We want your sweet flesh, we want your soft fur; 
Come soon, little White Tails.” 

They sang this over and over many times. Then 
they took the little rabbit home to their mother. 

They asked Wise Owl if the Bad Spirit had sent 
the bear to break their traps. 

“Ah, little braves,” said Wise Owl, “I cannot tell. 
But you must change your traps every day; for if a 
rabbit is caught in a trap and gets away, he will tell 
his brothers and they will all keep away from it.” 


INDIAN LEGENDS 


15 


CHAPTER II 
INDIAN LEGENDS 

One day there was a great thunderstorm. The 
lightning played in the sky. Suddenly there was a 
great crash and a large oak tree fell in the forest. 
The Indians were all afraid. 

They said, “The thunder-birds are in the sky. We 
must beg the Good Spirit to send the thunder- 
birds away.” 

Wild Hare and Brave Badger listened to the Indian 
braves. They were talking about an Indian who was 
killed by the bright wings of the thunder-bird. They 
saw the big oak tree that had been thrown to the 
ground. They were afraid of the roar of the thunder 
and the bolts of lightning and they hid in the 
wigwam. 

When the storm was over, Wild Hare and Brave 
Badger asked Wise Owl to tell them all about the 
thunder-birds. 

“Ah, little braves,” said Wise Owl, “the thunder- 
birds have great wings and they fly in the air when 
there is a storm. You can hear them clap their wings. 
They make a great roar as they fly. Their feet make 
tracks like fire. Big Thunder is the father of all the 


16 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


thunder-birds. He is always fighting with the Spirit 
of the Water. So when it rains the sky is full of 
thunder-birds. 

“Big Thunder lives on that great mountain peak 
yonder. He lives in a wigwam with four doors look¬ 
ing east and west and north and south. From there 
he sends the rain and the hail and the snow. 

“Sometimes the wings of the thunder-birds reach 
the earth and break down the trees. Sometimes they 
tear down the wigwams of the Indian braves, and if 
the red wing of the thunder-bird touches a brave it 
will kill him. When the sky grows very dark and 
the rain begins to fall, we shall ask the Good Spirit 
not to let the thunder-birds hurt us.” 

“What became of the Indian brave that was 
touched by the thunder-bird’s wings?” asked Brave 
Badger. 

“He went to the Happy Hunting Grounds,” said 
Wise Owl. “He took his arrows with him and there 
he will find many deer and many rabbits.” 

Gentle Fawn told her children tales of the Good 
Spirit. 

“Hush!” said Gentle Fawn. “The leaves on the 
trees can hear us. We must not offend the leaf 
spirits. When winter comes and the leaves are off 
the trees, we can talk about them.” 


INDIAN LEGENDS 


17 


“Can the wind hear, too?” asked Wild Hare. 

“Yes, the wind can hear, and the sun. We must 
be careful not to offend them. If the sun hides his 
face too long, the corn will not grow. If the wind 
does not blow it will not rain. Then we shall have 
no corn to eat.” 

Little Wild Hare and his brother did not know how 
to read. The Indian children had no books, but all 
the Indian fathers and mothers told stories to their 
children. In the evening about the camp fire or in 
the summer under the stars, the old men talked 
together, and the Indian boys listened to tales of 
brave deeds and of the killing of the deer and other 
game. 

Wise Owl was too old to go on the chase any more. 
He told the little brothers many tales. 

One bright, clear night they were looking at the 
stars. 

‘ ‘ There are seven little stars altogether, ’ ’ said Wild 
Hare. 

“Yes,” said Wise Owl, “I will tell you the story of 
the seven stars. 

“Once there were seven little Indian boys who 
used to play together. They hunted and fished and 
were great friends. In the evening they had an open 
space in the woods where they used to meet. They 


18 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 



Their parents saw them as they rose i 










INDIAN LEGENDS 


19 


brought their suppers and ate whatever they had. 
Then one of them would sit in the middle and sing 
while the others danced. 

“Once they planned to have a great feast. They 
told of all the good things they would have to eat. 
But when they had gathered they found that none 
of them had been able to get these good things. Their 
parents, one and all, had refused them food. 

“So there was not a single good thing to eat. The 
Indian boys were very sad. 

“But the little singer said, ‘Cheer up; we will 
dance and sing.’ 

“So he took his place in the middle and began to 
dance. They all began to grow happy and they 
danced and sang until their spirits grew so light that 
they flew away up into the sky. Their parents saw 
them as they rose and called out to them to come 
back, but up and up they went and were changed into 
seven stars.” 

“What a great story!” said Brave Badger. 

“One of the stars seems so little and pale,” said 
Wild Hare. “Why is he not bright like the rest?” 

“That,” said Wise Owl, “is the little singer. He 
is very homesick and wants to come back to his 
parents. But none of these poor little Indian boys 
can ever come back.” 


20 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


CHAPTER III 
AN INDIAN HOME 

Gentle Fawn dressed all the skins the hunters 
brought home and made them into clothing. Her 
needle was a fine bone from the ankle of a deer and 
her thread was a long spear of grass. 

Gentle Fawn made the ground ready and planted 
the com, because squaws always did the planting. 
She ground the corn and made it into cakes. She 
took care of the children until the boys were old 
enough to go hunting with the Indian braves. 

When they moved the camp Gentle Fawn carried 
the burdens, because Fighting Bear must have his 
aims free to shoot a fierce animal or an enemy should 
they meet one on the way. She cut the poles and 
made the new wigwam. The old women helped 
Gentle Fawn. When they planted corn and squashes 
they all worked together. 

Fighting Bear hunted and fished and brought home 
the meat for his squaw to cook. He was not afraid 
of anything, but he would not do a squaw’s work. He 
fought the warriors of other tribes and he danced at 
night dressed in the skin clothes that Gentle Fawn 
made for him. Fighting Bear did not dance for pleas- 


AN INDIAN HOME 


21 



ure, but to please the Great Spirit. The men and 
boys danced until they were tired. 

When Fighting Bear came home from the hunt, 
Gentle Fawn hurried to give him his dinner. 

He ate by himself and did not talk to his wife and 
children. 

When he was through, the family ate while he 
smoked his pipe. They had bear meat or venison and 
corn cakes. Gentle Fawn made tea of sassafras or 
other leaves. 

The Indian braves were very fond of t obacco. 
They smoked a great deal. 

Fighting Bear had a beautiful pipe. It 
was trimmed with the crest of a red¬ 
headed woodpecker. 

When the smoke came from 
the bowl of his pipe Fighting 
Bear caught it in his hands. 

Then he raised his 
hands high in the air. 

He thought the smoke 
would take a message 
to the Good Spirit. 

The Indians 
thought tobacco was 

the gift of the Good “Made them into clothing” 








22 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


Spirit, and when they wanted to talk to him they 
smoked. 

When an Indian died, his pipe and tobacco were 
put in his grave. He also had his bow and arrows 
and some food to take with him to the Happy Hunt¬ 
ing Grounds. 

Yellow Butterfly was the little Indian sister of 
Wild Hare and Brave Badger. Little Indian boys 
seldom played with their little sisters. Indian boys 
did not care to play with girls. 

Sometimes when Wild Hare and Brave Badger 
came home with a rabbit they let Yellow Butterfly 
play at cooking it. But the work of the Indian men 
and women was different. An Indian boy would not 
play at cooking or planting grain or making clothing, 
for that was squaw’s work. 

Yellow Butterfly helped take care of the baby. His 
name was Running Beer. He had bright, black eyes 
and coarse, stiff hair. His mother tied him to a cradle 
board. His arms were wrapped close to his body 
and he was strapped to this small board, which Gentle 
Fawn carried on her back. There was a little pillow 
on the board and a place to rest his feet. 

When Gentle Fawn was at work she unbound Run¬ 
ning Deer and let him lie on the cradle board. She 
freed his arms so he could play with his hands. 


AN INDIAN HOME 


23 


Then Yellow Butterfly hung red beads and bright 
playthings over the baby’s head. She was too small 
to carry the cradle board very far. Gentle Pawn 
made a hammock for 
the baby with two L 
ropes of skin and put 
a deerskin over them. 

Here Running Deer 
lay in his swinging bed 
and Yellow Butterfly 
watched him very 

Carefully. “Hung red beads over his head” 

Gentle Pawn was dressing a skin that the braves 
had brought home. She laid it on the ground and 
stretched it very tightly. Wooden pegs were driven 
along the edge to hold it smooth. As it dried it grew 
very hard. Gentle Pawn used a sharp bone to scrape 
off the fat and smooth down the thick places. The 
brains and liver and fat she used to rub in the skin 
to soften it. When this fat was rubbed in she rolled 
the skin up and left it for several days. Then it 
became nice and soft. She knew how to take the hair 
off the skin, but now winter was coming; so she would 
leave it on because it was warmer. In the winter lit¬ 
tle Wild Hare would like the warm fur. 

Each Indian brave wore a breechcloth. This was 



24 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


a band of deerskin brought up between the legs. 
He fastened it with a belt of skin. The ends hung 
down in front and behind like an apron. Gentle 
Fawn knew how to make these breechcloths pretty 
with beads and fringe. She knew how to make deer¬ 
skin leggings almost as long as a man’s legs. They 
were held up by a cord at the upper outer corner and 
tied to the belt. 

Then there was a warm jacket made of deerskin 
that came to the knees. When it was cold the Indian 
brave wore a large skin or blanket over all this to 
keep warm. He wrapped it about him like a shawl. 

Fighting Bear had gone to the white men’s camp 
with some furs. When he came back he had two 
blankets. They were warm and soft, and Fighting 
Bear was very proud of them. When he dressed him¬ 
self up, with much paint on his face and feathers in 
his hair, he put on one of the blankets over the beauti¬ 
ful skin shirt that Gentle Fawn had made him. 

One of the blankets was bright red, and this Fight¬ 
ing Bear gave to the Chief. Indians like bright 
colors. He also gave the Chief a necklace made of 
blue beads, which the fur traders had given him for 
his furs. The Indians so loved beads that they would 
sell their corn and their furs, and even their land, for 
red and green and blue beads. 


SIGN LANGUAGE AND WAMPUM 


25 


CHAPTER IV 

SIGN LANGUAGE AND WAMPUM 

Wild Hare and Brave Badger had never been to 
school, but they learned a great deal every day. They 
asked many questions of Gentle Pawn. They 
listened quietly when Fighting Bear and the other 
braves talked around the camp fire. 

Wise Owl taught them many things. Wise Owl 
had been a brave warrior in his day. He had no boys 
of his own and he liked to teach Wild Hare and Brave 
Badger. 

“Wise Owl, teach us the sign talk/’ begged little 
Wild Hare. “We can only talk to the Indians in 
our own tribe, and some day we will be braves our¬ 
selves. Then we shall want to talk to the people of 
other tribes.” 

Wise Owl knew the sign language very well. When 
Indians from other tribes came to smoke the peace 
pipe, Wise Owl was always called to talk to them. 

“I will teach you to say buffalo ,” said Wise Owl. 

Wild Hare and Brave Badger watched him very 
carefully. They did just as they were told. 

“Close both hands, but leave the forefingers open 
and curved,” said Wise Owl. 


26 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


Wild Hare’s little black eyes shone as he held forth 
two brown fists with the forefingers open and curved. 

“Hold the fingers a little straighter like a horn,” 
said Wise Owl. “That is right.” 

Brave Badger made his fingers into horns, too. 

“Now put the horns up to your heads,” said Wise 
Owl, holding his fists up to his temples. “Your 
curved fingers are the horns of the buffalo. All 
Indian braves know that.” 

Wild Hare and Brave Badger made the sign for 
buffalo over and over again, until Wise Owl was quite 
pleased. 

Then he taught them the word crow . 

“Lift up your arms,” said Wise Owl, “and leave 
your hands open. Your arms are the wings, and 
you must move them up and down and flap them as 
the big, black crow flaps his wings.” 

Over and over the little brothers made the crow 
sign. 

“Teach us another, teach us another,” begged Wild 
Hare and Brave Badger. 

“This is beaver ,” said Wise Owl. “Hold the left 
hand straight out in front with the palm down. 
Cross the right hand under it so the back of the right 
hand is against the left palm. Move the right hand 
up and down so it will slap the left palm.” 


SIGN LANGUAGE AND WAMPUM 


27 


This was not so easy, but soon Wild Hare learned 
to do it very well. 

“The beaver has a flat tail. He strikes the mud 
or the water with it,” said Wise Owl. “You must 
make a slapping noise like the beaver’s tail.” 

Brave Badger tried again and again to make the 
beaver sign. 

But Wise Owl shook his head. He made a sign that 
both the boys knew. He held his hands closed in 
front of him with the backs up. He moved them 
down and then outward. At the same time he opened 
them quickly. Brave Badger knew that this meant, 
“Bad, very bad.” 

But little Indian boys do not give up. Brave 
Badger soon went to roll himself in his blanket for 
the night. But all the time he was trying to make 
the beaver sign. In the morning he did it so well 
that Wise Owl was pleased and said they should soon 
have another sign lesson. 

One morning Wild Hare and Brave Badger found 
Wise Owl sitting on the ground with his knees 
crossed. He was working with some shells. The 
shells had been brought by some Indians who lived 
by the sea. Wise Owl was making wampum. Wam¬ 
pum is the Indian money. 

Wise Owl took a thick and heavy seashell and split 


28 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


off a piece. He ground it down with a stone until 
it was long and round. 

This he cut into beads that were twice as long as 
they were thick. 

He drilled a hole through the beads with the point 
of a stone. 

It took many long hours to drill holes through the 
wampum. Wise Owl put the drill against his leg 
and held the piece of shell against it with his hand. 
Now the shell beads were like pieces of straw. Some 
were white and some were purple. The Indian boys 
thought them very pretty. 

The wampum was strung on a string and some¬ 
times woven into belts. These belts had figures of 
men and animals. One Indian chief had a coat made* 
of wampum. 

When he needed money he cut off a piece of his 
coat. When Indian tribes made; treaties they 
exchanged belts of wampum. 

“I will take the purple wam¬ 
pum and you may have 
the white,” said Brave 
Badger. 

“No, I want the pur- 
* pie wampum,” said 

Wise Owl was making wampum” Wild Hare. 



SIGN LANGUAGE AND WAMPUM 


29 


He thought the purple beads were worth more than 
the white. 

“Do not fight/’ said Wise Owl. “Here is a sharp 
stone. Brave Badger, you may break off pieces of 
the shell and Wild Hare may drill them as I am 
doing.” 

But Wild Hare’s wrists were not strong enough 
to drill the wampum. Soon the boys ran away to 
have a shooting match with some new arrows. 

But Wise Owl sat and drilled and drilled wampum 
all day long. He strung the beads on deer sinews, 
and Gentle Fawn made them into pretty figures as 
she wove the belt. 

It took many months to make enough wampum 
for a belt. Wampum was the most precious thing the 
Indians had. That is why they were so fond of beads. 


30 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


CHAPTER V 
DAVY DRUMMOND 

Davy Drummond was a little white lad, who also 
lived in the forest. He lived with his father and 
mother and little brother Ned in a log cabin. Many 
white families were now coming to make their homes 
in the land of the Indians. They had to live as the 
Indians did and wear clothes of skin. 

Davy’s father killed most of their food with his 
gun. He went hunting every day. If he had good 
luck he came home with his game pouch full of rab¬ 
bits and squirrels. Sometimes he had a wild turkey. 

Davy’s mother gave him slices of cold meat to eat 
instead of bread, but he would have been glad to 
have bread. In the fall when the corn was ripe they 
would have some corn cakes. Davy could hardly wait 
for the time to come. He helped his father clear 
away some of the roots and brush and chop down 
some of the trees. When the clearing was made so 
the sun could get in, they planted the com they got 
from the Indians. Davy watched the corn every day 
so the birds would not get it. 

He had a long, slender stick with a bunch of roots 
on the end to throw at the crows. He learned to use 


DAVY DRUMMOND 


31 


it so well that he could kill birds and rabbits with it. 

After awhile the green com was ready to cook. 
They had a great feast, but only a part of it could 
be eaten this way, for they wanted the com to ripen 
for meal. Then Davy’s mother would pound the yel¬ 
low grains into meal and make cakes in the fireplace. 

Would you give a slice of tur¬ 
key for a piece of corn bread? 

Davy thought corn bread the best 
thing he had ever had to eat. He 
had no butter to eat with it, but 
there was plenty of gravy. They 
could get wild berries, too, and 
Davy’s father got honey from the 
bee trees. They used honey in¬ 
stead of sugar. 

Davy learned to shoot with his 
father’s gun when he was hardly 
old enough to hold it. He rested 
it on a stump while he took aim. One day he shot a 
crow that was pulling up the com, and he was very 
proud. 

Davy’s mother could shoot almost as well as a man. 
Mr. Drummond always took a gun when he left the 
cabin, but he had another that he left for Mrs. Drum¬ 
mond to use. No one knew when a wild animal or 



“He went hunting every 
day” 


32 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


an Indian might appear. There were many Indians 
in the woods about them. Some were friendly, but 
others hated the white people, and one never knew 
what they might do. 

Davy dressed much like the little Indian boys in 
the winter. His mother could sew and spin, but she 
had neither cotton nor wool, so the family all wore 
skins. On their feet they wore moccasins like those 
made by the Indians. 

Davy’s father had built a log cabin, which kept out 
the rain and snow. There was a big fireplace in one 
end, where they could cook their food. Davy slept 
in the loft and climbed up by a wooden ladder. He 
had a bed of pine boughs, and wrapped himself up 
in a buffalo skin. Little Ned slept near his father 
and mother downstairs. 

One morning Davy rolled out of his skin blanket 
very early. He was going on a hunting trip with his 
father. He put on some new moccasins and a shirt 
made of skins, and climbed down from the loft. 

His mother was already cooking some squirrels 
for their breakfast. While Davy and his father were 
eating, she filled their pouches with cold meat and 
corn bread. Davy’s father had cleaned the guns 
carefully the night before. He gave Davy the smaller 
gun. 



DAVY DRUMMOND 


33 


“I will keep the crows from the corn while you are 
gone, ” said little Ned. 

Davy waved his hand to his mother and little Ned 
as he started off. He took long steps to keep up 
with his father. They were going many miles away 
to a salt lick to hunt deer. 

All animals must have salt. In some places the 
earth and rocks are full of salt, and the deer and 
other animals come there to lick it up. 

Deer are very shy creatures and it takes much 
patience and caution to get near enough to shoot 
them. The deer has no way of protecting himself 
except to run swiftly. He can smell an enemy a long 
way off and is soon beyond the reach of a gun. 

Mr. Drummond was a fine deer hunter. As they 
went along he said, “I want to get a hundred deer¬ 
skins before the snow comes.” 

“Oh, father, why do you want so many?” asked 
Davy. 

“The traders will give me a dollar apiece for all I 
can bring them. This fall the coats will be nice and 
thick, for we are going to have a cold winter, and all 
the animals have thicker coats when it is very cold.” 

“A hundred skins will be a hundred dollars,” said . 
Davy. “Is that a great deal of money, father?” 

“Yes, it is,” said his father. “We do not have 


34 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


much money here in the forest. I shall need it to buy 
powder and shot.” 

The sun was very high when they came to the salt 
lick. Mr. Drummond had no watch, but he could tell 
the time of day quite well by the shadow of the trees. 

“It is noon and I am hungry,” he said. “We will 
eat our good lunch. For supper we will eat venison, 
for I ami sure we shall have a deer by that time.” 

They sat down on a log to eat. Davy found a few 
blackberries for dessert. They made cups of leaves 
and drank from a spring. From the spring flowed a 
little stream where the deer would go to drink after 
they had all the salt they wanted. 

“The wind is from the north. We must hide to 
the south of the lick,” said Mr. Drummond, “so the 
breeze will not take the smell of our bodies to the 
deer. Then we must keep very still. If a twig cracks 
or a leaf rustles or the grass moves they will hear it. 
We can get only one deer at a time, for when I fire 
my gun it will scare all the others and we shall have 
to wait for them to come back.” 

“Did you ever shoot more than one deer in a day, 
father?” asked Davy. 

“ Yes, son. One day I shot four. I have been a fine 
deer hunter in my day. I want you to be a deer 
hunter, too. When you were a tiny baby your mother 


DAVY DRUMMOND 


35 


found that peculiar mark upon your shoulder.” 

“The mark of the arrow, father?” 

“Yes, son, and the mark like the deer’s horn. It 
is the sign of the deer hunter. Now we must hide 
ourselves in the bushes and watch. We must not 
talk, but we must have our guns ready to shoot. If 
more than one deer comes, I will take the largest one 
and you may take the next in size. Take good aim 
and when I whistle, fire!” 

Davy grew very tired lying on the ground. His 
father thought he had gone to sleep. Davy got cold 
keeping so still. He blew on his fingers to warm 
them. It must have been an hour before they heard 
the leaves rustling. Sudden¬ 
ly they saw a deer poking its 
pretty head through the 
bushes. The deer looked all 
about and sniffed the air. It 
could see nothing and it could 
smell nothing. 

It gave some sort of a sig¬ 
nal and two other deer came 
out of the bushes. Davy 
could see his father taking 
aim. His heart beat very 
ast. He, too, took aim Very “Suddenly they saw a deer** 




36 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


carefully at the smaller deer and waited for his father 
to whistle. Bang! Bang! Both guns cracked almost 
at the same time. The big deer fell, but Davy’s deer 
gave a flying leap among the trees and escaped, fol¬ 
lowed by the third one. 

Mr. Drummond ran quickly to the fallen deer. It 
was quite dead. He dragged its body away from the 
stream and skinned it. Then he cut large venison 
steaks to roast for their supper while Davy built a 
fire. 

Davy was very sad because his deer had got away, 
but he did not let his father know how he felt. A 
good hunter never finds fault with his luck. 

After supper they moved a little farther down the 
stream and waited until dark, but no more deer came. 

“ Maybe the one that got away told his brothers not 
to come,” said Davy. 

“Perhaps they did,” said Mr. Drummond. “If 
they come after dark I will light a torch and flash 
light in their eyes. Sometimes the Indians kill them 
that way. They are so surprised at the light that 
they forget to run.” 

Davy thought that would be very exciting, but he 
was so tired that he curled up in a nice warm spot 
under a tree and went to sleep. The next morning 
his father had another fine deerskin. 


DAVY IS LOST 


37 


CHAPTER VI 

DAVY IS LOST 

On another hunting trip Davy killed a deer and 
his father said he might have the money for its skin. 
He could shoot quite well now, and often went into 
the w r oods alone with his gun. The first time he 
stayed away at night he was punished. His mother 
got sick, worrying because she thought the Indians 
had captured him. 

He had tried to go to the* deer lick alone and it was 
too far to get back. He knew how to make a fire and 
cook fish and rabbits, and he could sleep very well 
curled up in the branches of a tree when the weather 
was warm. He went hunting very often. Whenever 
he came home with a deer skin, Mr. Drummond was 
very proud of his son and would not let his wife scold 
Davy for staying away. 

One morning Davy’s father told him they would 
cross the mountains for more skins. They were to 
be gone several weeks. They walked and climbed 
hills and mountains for several days and slept at 
night rolled up in blankets that they carried on their 
backs. They were now in a new country, and often 
it was hard to find good water to drink. 


38 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


One night Mr. Drummond was sick, and in the 
morning Davy started off just as it was light to find 
a spring. He did not take his gun, for he expected 
to go a very little way, and they had plenty of game 
for their breakfast. 

Davy looked and looked for some signs of water, 
and before he knew it he had lost his way. He called 
and called, but he had no answer but the echo of his 
own voice in the forest. There was no stream to 
guide him back to their camping place. He walked 
faster and faster. Soon he knew he was lost, for he 
was going in a circle. He came back to the same place 
again and again. 

He sat down to think it over, and found how hungry 
he was. There were some nuts on the ground and he 
cracked them with stones and ate all he wished. By 
this time the sun was high and he was sure he could 
not find the camp. He listened, hoping his father 
would fire a gun to guide him, but he heard no sound. 

A saucy little squirrel chattered on a branch and 
the birds sang. Davy was not afraid, but he thought 
of his sick father. 

“How careless I was not to leave some stones piled 
up to show the way back!” he thought. 

After a time he found a stream of water and had 
a good drink. He caught some small fish in the 


DAVY IS LOST 


39 


stream and cooked them for his dinner. Then he lay 
down and fell asleep. When he awoke it was late 
and the sun was l'ow. 

“The sun is in the west and the mountain is toward 
the east. In the morning I will start off early, and 
when I have crossed the mountain I can find my way 
home. How I wish I had my gun, with plenty of 
powder and shot!” he thought. 

He thought often of his sick father and hoped to 
hear the sound of his gun, but there was no signal, 
and it grew dark and cold. He climbed into the limbs 
of a big oak tree and curled down where he could not 
fall, and again went to sleep. 

The next morning, when Wild Hare and Brave 
Badger were roaming in the forest, they came upon 
a little white boy asleep in the branches of a big oak 
tree. He looked lonely and very hungry. At first 
the Indian boys were afraid, but when they saw he 
was alone they threw nuts to waken him. 

Davy looked down at them and laughed. He was 
glad to have some company. He had often played 
with Indian boys in the camp near home. He made 
signs to them to let them know he was lost. Wild 
Hare gathered some nuts for Davy, and Brave 
Badger ran to catch some fish. They watched Davy 
build a fire to cook them and laughed a great deal. 


40 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


They could not talk because they did not understand 
one another. 

When they had finished Davy asked them by signs 
to help him find his father. They hunted all the 
morning, but when noon came the Indian boys 
wanted to go home. Davy did not know what to do. 
They ran on and on, and Davy followed. 

When they came to the camp all the braves and 
Indian women came to look at the little paleface. 
Gentle Fawn gave him some rabbit meat and was 
very kind to him. The men talked to each other in 
a strange language and grunted. They pointed over 
the mountains, and Davy tried to tell them that his 
father was sick and he was lost. 

Wise Owl made signs to him that he could not 
understand. 

Davy thought Wise Owl said, “I w T ill go in the 
morning and take you home.” 

He felt very strange and dizzy, so when Gentle 
Fawn gave him a skin he rolled up and went to sleep. 

Wise Owl talked to Wild Hare and Brave Badger 
about him. 

He said: “He is a little paleface. The palefaces 
live on the other side of the mountain. They have 
strange sticks that make a great noise and kill Indian 
braves. They take our corn and they take our land. 


DAVY IS LOST 


41 



“Gentle Fawn gave him some rabbit meat J 










42 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


Sometimes they give us red and blue wampum. If 
we take this little paleface home we may be killed.” 

That night Davy was very ill. For several days 
he did not know where he was, and when he was 
better he found that the Indians had moved their 
camp to the place where they were going to stay all 
winter. When he got well he begged Wise Owl to 
take him home, but Wise Owl always said, “In the 
morning.’’ 

Wild Hare and Brave Badger liked Davy. When 
they had taught him to shoot an arrow as straight 
as they could, they ran to Wise Owl and asked him 
to make Davy a bow. They taught him their games 
and they played with him every day. 

One day Davy ran a race with the boys. He ran 
so well that he beat Brave Badger. Now Brave 
Badger was the fastest runner of all the Indian boys, 
and when Davy ran faster than Brave Badger they 
all cheered. 

Davy could swim, too. His teeth did not chatter 
as much as Wild Hare’s when he jumped into the 
cold water. He w r as a real little hunter, and Fighting 
Bear and the Chief watched him and laughed. 

The Chief had no boys of his own and wanted to 
keep Davy. 

He said, “He shall be my son and be Chief when 


I am gone. His name . 

And after that, Davy w^ 

Chief. 

Now, they were all settled in their v 
under the brow of a hill with a large strea^ 

Davy stayed with the Indians because he tiia ±±~ 
know what else to do. After a time he saw that Wise 
Owl did not intend to take him home and he did not 
know how to go alone. He w r ondered what his mother 
said when his father went home without him. He 
wondered if his father got well and went home with¬ 
out trying to find him. But when he tried to tell the 
Chief that he wanted to go back to his father, the 
Chief grunted and shook his head. 


^r"TER VII 


iJDIAN GAMES 

Chief and Brave Badger were tired 
_ they played a game with some sticks. 
They cut branches of trees about like a yardstick and 
peeled the bark off so the sticks would slip through 
their fingers. They made them square at one end 
and pointed at the other. 

White Chief had four sticks and Brave Badger had 
four. White Chief scratched a cross on his sticks, 
and Brave Badger made a circle on his so they could 
tell them apart. 

They held the sticks between their thumbs and mid¬ 
dle fingers and pushed them with their forefingers. 
Each sent his stick sliding along the grass as far as 
it would go. The game was to see who could send 
his sticks the farther. In the winter they made them 
skim a long distance over the snow. 

Brave Badger was very clever with his sticks and 
easily won the game. Soon WTiite Chief was tired of 
being beaten, so he said, “Let us hide the ball.” 

They took off their moccasins and put them in a 
row. White Chief found a small, round stone for the 
ball. While Brave Badger covered his face, White 


Chief hid the ban c*. 

Badger was given one gu 

hidden. 

The day before the Indian boy^. 

They often played this game and it Wc 

Wise Owl took half the boys in the camp 

of the hill and an Indian brave took the other half 

on the other side of the hill. Wild Hare was on one 

side and Brave Badger and White Chief on the other. 

There were forty boys in all. They had belts about 

their waists with a wooden knife stuck in the belt. 

The boys had plenty of arrows, but they were only 
stalks of grass instead of real arrows tipped with 
bone. These arrows were hollow and light and would 
not hurt anyone. All the little warriors tied tufts 
of grass to their hair so they could be pulled off 
easily. These were their scalp locks. 

Old Wise Owl told Brave Badger and the boys on 
his side to lie down flat on the ground and crawl 
through the grass until they could peep over the hill. 
All around Brave Badger the other boys crawled flat 
on their stomachs. They made a rustling sound in 
the grass. They grasped their bows and arrows in 
their hands like real Indians at war. 

When Brave Badger got to the top of the hill he 
kept still so no one could see the grass move. He 


^ae who were crawd- 
)1 him he saw the grass 

arrow to his bow and shot it 
an Indian boy on the head. The boy 
C4/S if he were dead. 

Brave Badger ran to the boy he had shot. As he 
ran he pulled the wooden knife from his belt and 
made a motion as if he were taking the other boy’s 
scalp. At the same time he pulled off the other boy’s 
tuft of grass and waved it. He stuck it in his belt 
and gave a war whoop. 

Brave Badger made all the haste he could to kill 
his enemy, but by this time all the other Indian boys 
on that side were shooting grass arrows at him. One 
of the arrows hit him on the right leg, so he ran 
limping back to his place in the grass. He played 
he was wounded. 

Now all the boys on one side of the hill were shoot¬ 
ing at the boys on the other side. If an arrow hit 
an enemy’s body or his head, the boy was counted 
dead and had to give up his grass scalp to the boy 
who shot him. He had to lie as if dead until the 
game was over. If an arrow struck his arm or his 
leg he was only wounded and could keep on shoot¬ 
ing. It was just like a big Indian battle. 


INDIAN GAMES 


47 



“Made a motion as if he were taking the other boy's scalp’ 













48 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


Wise Owl and the other braves told them when to 
fight and when to rest. They got more and more 
excited. Sometimes Brave Badger’s side charged 
while the others retreated, and sometimes Wild 
Hare’s side charged. They kept it up for an hour or 
more. The boys sent the grass arrows flying at one 
another, and some of the boys got several grass 
scalps. 

At last Wise Owl told them the battle was over. 
They went back to camp to show the Indian braves 
and the women the scalps. Then they had a war 
dance. They boasted how brave they had been. 
They jumped up and down and shook their grass 
scalps and shouted as loudly as they could shout. 

The Indian braves all laughed loudly and cheered 
them on. This was their way of teaching the Indian 
lads to be brave warriors. Brave Badger had three 
scalps and Fighting Bear was very proud of him. 

Among the warriors in the sham battle were two 
other Indian boys, Brown Bear and Cunning Fox. 
Being about the same age as White Chief and Wild 
Hare, they often played with the two lads. 

One day the four boys made war on a hornet’s nest. 
They found it hanging like a great paper balloon to 
the limb of a tree. They pretended this was another 
tribe of Indians and they were going to make war on 


INDIAN GAMES 


49 


them. They painted themselves with red clay until 
they looked like warriors and stole quietly up to 
the nest. 

They were armed with long sticks and stones. 
When Wild Hare gave the signal they all started 
to tear down the nest. Out came the angry hornets. 
Oh, how they stung! White Chief’s eye was swollen 
shut. Cunning Fox had bunches all over his body. 
But foolish little Brown Bear had jumped with both 
feet on the nest. 

He danced up and down calling, “lama big brave. 
I have killed the enemy.” 

Then how he screamed! The hornets all stung him 
at once. He was covered with them. The pain was 
terrible. The other boys shouted to him to jump in 
the river. Brown Bear quickly got under water, but 
he had screamed and cried and now 
he was a coward. He could take 
no part in the war dance afterward. 

Old Wise Owl laughed when 
he saw the little Indians with 
their swollen faces. 

They called Brown 
Bear a woman be- 
cause he had 

screamed and cried. “The hornets all stung him” 



50 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


He would have to do a great many brave things no^ 
to make his friends forget that he had been a coward 

The next day the Indian boys had a medicine danc< 
to cure Brown Bear. His face was so swollen thai 
no one knew him. The medicine men had a dance thai 
lasted a day and a half. They danced and sang songs 
to the Great Spirit to get him to heal the sick. The 
Indian lads knew some of these songs and they danced 
and sang a long time to cure Brown Bear. Pool 
Brown Bear was so ashamed that he wished they 
would go off and forget him. 

White Chief liked to play “White Man.” All thai 
the other boys knew about the white man was thai 
he came to get corn and to exchange his beads and 
blankets for the Indians’ furs. But White Chief 
taught them to do many things his father used to do. 
He painted Cunning Pox and Wild Hare with white 
clay and made them hats of birch bark. He fas¬ 
tened pieces of rabbit’s fur to their chins for beards. 
Then how they laughed! White Chief brought pow¬ 
dered earth and small skins to them to trade for col¬ 
ored pebbles and the juice of berries which they 
called firewater. 

One day they all went into the forest and Cunning 
Pox ran to look in a hollow tree. He motioned to the 
other boys to come quickly. There were four baby 


INDIAN GAMES 


51 


raccoons. The pretty things were all curled up in a 
soft, warm nest. 

“Will they bite?” asked Brown Bear. 

“No, they are too small,” replied White Chief. 

He reached in and took one out in his hands. It 
gave a sharp squeak. Then each boy took a coon, 
covering its head so it could not make a sound. 

“Let us take them home for supper,” said Brown 
Bear. 

“Look out!” cried Wild Hare, who was watching 
for the mother. He knew she had very sharp, white 
teeth. She had heard her baby’s squeak and had 
come to defend it. Her hair stood up and her eyes 
were very wild and angry. White Chief handed his 
baby coon to Brown Bear and seized a heavy stick. 
The boys started to run. White Chief knew that 
if he missed his aim the mother coon would get the 
better of him. He struck hard and straight on her 
head. Then with a stone hatchet he hit her again 
until he was sure she was dead. 

Then the boys started proudly for home with the 
whole coon family. Gentle Fawn was glad of the coon 
meat for supper. She was always proud of her young 
hunters. Wise Owl grunted and laughed. He liked 
coon meat and he liked to see the boys bring home 
game that they had killed. 


52 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


CHAPTER VIII 

MAKING BOWS AND ARROWS 

White Chief had learned to use a gun, but now he 
was to learn how skillful the Indians were with their 
arrows. In the fall Wise Owl took the Indian boys 
with him many days to gather shoots of trees to make 
arrows. These shoots of trees were cut just as the 
leaves were ready to fall for winter. 

“Now the Spirit of the Cold is making the wood 
hard so that the snow and ice will not hurt it,” said 
Wise Owl. “We must take this wood when it is the 
hardest. The sticks must be very straight and 
smooth to make arrows.” 

“Will this one do?” asked Wild Hare. 

“No, that is part of a branch. It is not straight 
enough,” said Wise Owl. 

Day after day they gathered the rods. All the 
warriors brought them in. Wise Owl put twenty 
in a bundle. None of them were as long as a yard¬ 
stick and none of them were as short as a foot ruler, 
but they were all the way between. Every warrior 
had his own kind of arrow. He made it just the right 
length for his bow and his arms. 

The warrior could always tell his own arrow and 


MAKING BOWS AND ARROWS 


53 


he could not shoot so well with one belonging to an¬ 
other brave. 

Fighting Bear carried in his quiver a stick just the 
length that he made all his arrows. If someone else 
claimed his arrows he measured them by his pattern 
stick. If the claimant was not sure, Fighting Bear 
showed his mark in the head of the arrow. His mark 
was the tooth of a bear cut very small on the arrow’s 
head. He did not show this mark unless he had to. 
Wise Owl always marked his arrows with the beak 
of an owl hidden under the feather. 

When the boys brought the rods home and Wise 
Owl and the Chief had taken all that were just right 
for making arrows, they put about twenty in a bunch 
and wrapped them together very tightly with strips 
of deerskin. These they hung over the fire in the 
wigwam to dry. The deerskin kept them straight so 
they did not warp. 

After a few weeks they were dry and Wise Owl 
showed the boys how to scrape off the bark. It took 
Wise Owl about a day to make a good arrow, but it 
took the boys much longer. 

When the arrow wood was dry, every brave took 
his pattern stick and cut his arrows exactly the same 
length. 

“Your arrows must be exactly the same,” said 



54 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


Wise Owl, “or they will not fly alike and you cannot 
have a true aim.” 

White Chief learned to take the bark from his 
arrow rods and to cut them exactly alike. He had 
to work a long time before he could make the notch 
for the bowstring exactly in the middle of the shaft. 
If the center of the notch was the least bit at one 
side, Wise Owl shook his head. Finally White Chief 
learned to make the notch right. Then he scraped 
the arrow and tapered it toward the notch and 
rounded it so that the string would not split the 
arrow. 

There were many turkey quills in the corner of the 
wigwam. Three feathers were fastened on each shaft 
with glue and wrapped tightly with sinew. 

When the arrows were all peeled and scraped and 
notched, Wise Owl showed the boys how to crease 
them. He took an arrowhead that was sharp and 
strong and made a zigzag line from one end to 
the other. 

“Why do we do this?” asked Wild Hare. 

“When you kill a rabbit,” said Wise Owl, “and 
the arrow stays in his side there must be a place 
where the blood can flow out. It runs down this 
little crease and off the end of the arrow. Now we 
will saw a slit in the point of the arrow. It must be 


MAKING BOWS AND ARROWS 55 

exactly in the middle. Here we will put in the flint 
arrowhead and tie it fast with sinew.” 

Up to this time the boys had the small bows that 
Wise Owl made them. When they were very small 
boys they were taught to shoot with blunt arrows. 
They shot at a mark. If they missed the mark they 
could not hurt one another. When they went out in 
the woods to shoot they had small arrow points. 

Wild Hare and White Chief shot squirrels and rab¬ 
bits and birds with these small arrow points. Very 
often Fighting Bear felt of the muscles on their arms 
and said, “Soon Wild Hare will be ready for the long 
bow.” When they had used the long bow awhile 
they were ready for the strong bow. 

As soon as their muscles got strong enough they 
were given the strong bow, which was so powerful 
that it could send an arrow straight through the body 
of a large animal. The strong bow was used by the 
Indian warriors and was as deadly as a gun. 

In those days it took much longer to load a gun 
than it does now, so the Indians could shoot their 
arrows faster than the white men could load then- 
guns and shoot. 

All the warriors used the strong bow. Fighting 
Bear could send an arrow through a piece of wood 
an inch thick. He was very proud of his bow. When 




56 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 



Wild Hare tried to use it he could not bend it at all, 
it was so stiff and strong. But every night when 
Fighting Bear came back to the lodge, he said, 
“Come, Wild Hare, see if you can bend the strong 
bow,” and after a time Wild Hare could bend it well 
enough to shoot. 

The Chief taught White Chief how to use a bow 
and soon he could shoot straighter than Wild Hare. 

Fighting Bear’s bow was thicker in the middle 
than at the ends. It was made of cedar wood, because 
cedar did not need to be dried over the fire before 
it could be used. Fighting Bear worked on his bow 
nearly a month. He made it flat with a sharp stone 
and smoothed it with a sandstone. He had long 
arms and knew just the size he could best use. He 



MAKING BOWS AND ARROWS 57 

had a glue made from the hoofs of a deer. With this 
he attached the sinew of a deer to the wood of the 
bow and lapped it at the ends and in the middle. 
Then he put the glue all over the bow. When the 
bow was dry he painted it and made it very pretty. 

As Fighting Bear walked through the forest his 
bow was always in a sheath in his quiver. The quiver 
was strapped across his breast by a belt of skin. 
Gentle Fawn made the picture of a bear out of beads 
and colored porcupine quills on the belt so everyone 
knew this bow belonged to Fighting Bear. 

Over and over again Wise Owl taught the Indian 
boys the right way to hold a bow and arrow. 

“Take the bow in your right hand, White Chief, 
and hold it with three fingers. Fix the arrow on the 
bowstring with the thumb and finger of the other 
hand and pull the string with the other three fingers 
of the left hand. That is right. Now the shaft of the 
arrow is in the thumb and finger of the right hand 
as it reaches over the bow. Turn the arrow just a 
little. Now shoot ! 9 y 

White Chief shot, but he did not hit the mark the 
first time. Over and over again he tried and in time 
he could shoot as well as Brave Badger. 


58 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


CHAPTER IX 

THE BUFFALO HUNT 

The Indians were getting ready for winter. The 
days were much colder. Already there were a few 
snowflakes and Gentle Fawn and the other Indian 
squaws wanted more buffalo skins. Buffalo skins 
are big and warm. The squaws wanted buffalo meat, 
too. The buffaloes always came to the streams in the 
fall. Why did they not come now? 

The Chief called all the braves and warriors and 
they had a dance. They put on their best robes and 
painted their faces. They wanted to please the Great 
Spirit. They danced and danced for five days to make 
the buffaloes come. Every morning watchers climbed 
to the top of the hill to look for the buffaloes. One 
morning the watchers on the hill gave a signal. The 
signal said, “The buffaloes have come!” All the 
Indians shouted for joy. 

The young men got their arrows ready. They tried 
their bows. The women all ran to the top of the 
hill to see with their own eyes that the buffaloes were 
there. Wild Hare and Brave Badger and White Chief 
went with them. 

They saw a great many buffaloes eating grass and 


THE BUFFALO HUNT 


59 


wallowing in the swamp. The buffaloes had dug holes 
in the ground with their horns and when the holes 
filled with water they wallowed in the mud and plas¬ 
tered it all over their backs and sides. How fat and 
sleek they were! All were ready for the cold weather. 

The squaws wanted to dry a great store of their 
meat and keep it for the cold days of winter when 
they could get no other food. 

On top of the hill near a high cliff the hunters had 
built a great buffalo trap. Two long piles of rock 
led to the cliff like the letter Y. Only a narrow open¬ 
ing was left on the edge of this cliff. These rock 
fences spread out wide as they reached back down 
toward the swamp where the buffaloes were feeding. 
The plan was to coax the buffaloes into this trap and 
drive them over the cliff. 

At the foot of the cliff there was a pen built of 
stones into which the animals would fall. Then the 
braves could shoot them with their arrows. 

It called for very clever work to get the buffaloes 
into the trap. Only a few Indians knew how to call 
the buffaloes. Fighting Bear was the caller. It 
took a very brave and quick Indian to lead a herd 
on foot. Fighting Bear had been going without food 
for many days and begging the Great Spirit to 
help him. 


60 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


All the other Indians hid behind the rock fences 
while Fighting Bear went out toward the herd of 
buffaloes covered with a big buffalo skin. With him 
walked another Indian to hold up the skin and make 
it look like a live buffalo. They moved slowly toward 
the herd. As they came near some of the buffaloes 
raised their heads and stared at them. The beasts 
thought this was a strange-looking brother. 

Closer and closer the decoy came until the herd 
could all hear Fighting Bear’s voice. Then he turned 
his head away and began calling in a strange manner. 
The buffalo bulls looked up, for they always defended 
the herd. Was some buffalo cow in trouble? Were 
the wolves trying to get a buffalo calf? It sounded 
like a mother asking for help. They kept staring at 
the caller and went a few steps toward him and 
stared again. 

The buffaloes that were lying in the wallows got 
on their feet and began to listen to the queer sound. 
Now some of the bulls had begun to follow the caller. 
Fighting Bear kept a little in front with his strange 
noise. At last the bulls were all following. They 
were pushing and crowding one another. All the 
herd were moving toward the trap. 

The buffaloes were going faster and faster. Now 
the caller began to run as fast as he could toward 


THE BUFFALO HUNT 


61 



'T/imi) his robe over its head ” 


the cliff through the hole in the trap. The herd were 
running after him. Fighting Bear had to be quick. 
Just as they were at his heels he leaped to one side 
out of the way of their trampling hoofs. 

As soon as the herd were well within the rock 
fences, the squaws and Indian boys closed in behind 
them, waving buffalo robes and shouting so they 
would not turn back. One buffalo tried to pass the 
spot White Chief was guarding, but he threw his robe 
over its head. 

There was great shouting. This scared the buf¬ 
faloes in the rear so that they kept pushing those in 



62 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


front. They crowded upon the leaders until they were 
upon the very edge of the cliff. The animals in front 
began to see their danger. They tried to turn back. 
They turned to the right and the left, but all about 
them were shouting Indians, waving skins and robes. 

The rest of the herd crowded and pushed them 
along in great excitement. Fighting Bear and his 
helper were now out of the way of their trampling 
feet. 

Over the cliff went one great buffalo bull and after 
him the whole herd pushed madly. Down they 
plunged to their death upon the rocks. 

Some had their legs broken and others were 
crushed by the fall. The hunters hurried after them 
with their bows and arrows to kill those that were 
not dead. The squaws hastened down with their 
knives to take off the skins and save the meat. 

When evening came the camp was full of drying 
skins and from every bush and tree hung strips of 
buffalo meat to dry. For many days the Indian 
women were busy dressing the skins for robes and 
tent coverings. 

Gentle Fawn had a large share because Fighting 
Bear was the caller. She was very proud of her 
Indian brave. It was dangerous to call buffaloes. 
Sometimes the caller was killed. 


THE BUFFALO HUNT 


63 


Gentle Fawn covered the skins with ashes from 
the fire pit and poured water over the skins. This 
made a strong lye that would take the hair off. 
With one of the tanned skins she made a beautiful 
shirt for Fighting Bear. 

The Indians all had plenty of skins. They would 
hang them over their wigwams to make them warm 
for winter or spread them on the ground to sit upon. 
Indians never sat on chairs or benches because they 
had none. Wise Owl said, “The earth is my mother. 
I will rest on her bosom. ” 

The dried buffalo meat was ground fine and called 
pemmican. Wild Hare and Brave Badger liked pem- 
mican and soon White Chief learned to like it, too. 

A few days after the hunt, Gentle Fawn and the 
Indian boys went to get the bones of some of the 
buffaloes. The marrow inside the bones is fat and 
good to eat. They struck the bones on the hard rocks 
and broke them open. The boys ate the marrow as 
fast as they could break the bones, but Gentle Fawn 
made it into soup for Fighting Bear. 


64 


LITTLE .WHITE CHIEF 


CHAPTER X 

BRAVE BADGER GOES TO THE FOREST 

White Chief had lived with the Indians more than 
a year. Once he went with Wise Owl to the foot of 
the mountain and begged the old Indian to let him 
go back to his people. But Wise Owl told him he 
would die alone in the forest. Wise Owl dared not 
offend his Chief by taking White Chief home. 

White Chief said to himself, “Some day, when I 
am a little older, I will set out alone and find my 
father and mother and little Ned. I will learn aH I 
can about taking care of myself in the woods.” 

When they got back it was dark and the three boys 
sat about the camp fire, listening to the talk of the 
older men. The air was blue with smoke. Fighting 
Bear and the Chief said Brave Badger was old 
enough to go by himself and spend the winter in 
the woods. When an Indian boy was twelve years 
old he was sent alone to live in the woods for many 
months. 

In the fall he was led away blindfolded so he would 
not know the Vay back and if he came home before 
spring he was laughed at and called a woman. Some¬ 
times he never came back and then the braves said. 


BRAVE BADGER GOES TO THE FOREST 


65 


“He could not take care of himself. It is better he 
did not live.” 

All Indian boys were taught to be brave. For pun¬ 
ishment they were scratched with sharp stones until 
the wounds bled, but they made no sound. Indian 
lads could not be cowards. When they were tiny 
babies they were taught not to cry. The sound of 
the owl was a noise often made by enemies as a signal 
that they were going to attack a camp. When Indian 
boys were babies their mothers said, “Do not cry. 
The owl will get you.” And the babies never cried. 

They could not weep or moan at pain and they 
were taught to endure the most cruel torture without 
making a sound. Brave Badger and Wild Hare beat 
their legs with sticks until they bled, and laughed at 
the pain. They cut themselves with sharp stones. 
They walked through briers and ran many miles 
every day to gain strength and courage. The ground 
was rough and their feet were sore, but they must 
never give up or they could not be warriors. 

Indian braves had to fight wild animals and drive 
off their enemies. They must be ready to kill their 
enemies and able to endure pain and hunger. 

Wild Hare was not old enough to go into the woods 
alone. How he envied Brave Badger because his 
brother was almost a man! 


66 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


He said, “I will watch where they take you, Brave 
Badger, and come sometimes to see you.” 

White Chief listened to see if he were to go to 
the woods, too. 

But the Chief said: “If we send White Chief the 
palefaces will get him. He will not come back. We 
will wait till another snowfall. Then he will forget 
his people and be sure to come back to us.” 

So White Chief and Wild Hare watched while 
Brave Badger was led away. There was a great feast 
and a dance the night before and Brave Badger was 
given the best food. If he was sorry to go and leave 
his playmates, no one knew it. A good Indian boy 
never found fault. He knew he could not be an 
Indian brave without proving that he could take 
care of himself. Spring would soon come and when 
he had shown his courage he would come back. 

Brave Badger was led many miles with his eyes 
bandaged. After they had walked three days, he 
was left sitting on a stone. When he uncovered his 
eyes he was alone in the deep forest near a stream 
with only a stone hatchet, a knife, and his bows and 
arrows. He was very hungry and there was no 
Gentle Fawn to cook his food for him. 

But Brave Badger was not afraid. He had always 
lived in the woods. He began to look about for a fat 


BRAVE BADGER GOES TO THE FOREST 67 

squirrel and soon saw one on a limb. His arrow flew 
and the squirrel fell to the ground. First of all, he 
saved the arrow. He had no time to make new 
arrows for he must spend his time getting food. 
When he had the arrow safe in his quiver he rubbed 
two pieces of cedar wood together until he had made 
a spark and started a fire. While the fire was burn¬ 
ing he skinned the squirrel and held the meat over 
the fire on a long stick to cook. 

When he had eaten, he took his hatchet and 
chopped down three small trees for poles. He stuck 
these in the ground. With his knife he cut large 
pieces of bark from larger trees and laid them over 
the poles so that he would have a wigwam. He built 
a fire on the ground inside the wigwam so that the 
ground would be warm where he would sleep that 
night. 

Now he was very tired, so he rolled up in his deer¬ 
skin and slept until morning. 

Since Brave Badger had no one to talk to, he made 
friends of the wild animals. He had a tame rabbit 
to which he used to talk as he did to Wild Hare. 
He knew the tracks of all the wild animals and where 
to look for them. He knew all the herbs and plants. 
Some of these plants were good to eat and some were 
poison. Sometimes he ate or touched the poisonous 


68 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 



herbs and he soon felt 


mi sick. But his mother 
had taught him other 


herbs to eat to keep him 
from being very sick. 


‘He saw a bear ■” 


He often ate the poison¬ 
ous herbs and then some of the 
others so that his body would 
get used to them. In this way, 
they would not make him sick 
when he was a man. 


One day he saw a bear. He wanted its warm skin 
very much, for the nights were getting colder. He 
followed it but was afraid to shoot at it with his 
arrows; for a wounded bear is very savage and he 
was afraid he could not kill it alone. 

“I had better shoot a deer,” said Brave Badger 
to his tame rabbit. “A deerskin will do as well and 
if I fail to kill it, at least it will not kill me.” 

More than one night Brave Badger went to bed 
without his supper after he had hunted all day with 
his bow and arrow. 

But he said, “An Indian brave can go hungry. In 
the morning I will get some birds.” 

One morning he killed a wild turkey. It was high 
up in a tree, but Brave Badger knew how to gobble 






BRAVE BADGER GOES TO THE FOREST 69 

like a turkey and soon the bird came down to a lower 
branch. 

“ Gobble, gobble!” said Brave Badger. 

“Gobble, gobble!” said the turkey and flew to a 
still lower limb. Brave Badger was hiding behind 
the trunk of a tree. His arrow was ready in his 
bow and he was very careful in his aim, for he was 
very hungry. Now the turkey was near enough and 
the arrow flew. 

Whiz! It hit the turkey in the head and the big 
bird fell flapping to the ground. Brave Badger 
jumped to seize it and wrung its neck. Its wings 
flapped so hard that it nearly got away. 

Brave Badger could hardly wait to cook the turkey. 
His fire was burning, so he stripped off the feathers 
and cut some pieces of the breast to hold over the 
coals. How good it tasted! 

“I wish I could show this to Wild Hare,” he 
thought. “I am sure Wise Owl would praise me if 
he had seen my sure aim.” 

He saved some of the meat for another day. “After 
this,” he thought, “I will always keep something 
for the days I have bad luck in hunting.” He took 
the largest turkey feathers and fastened them to 
some strips of deerskin and hung them over his shoul¬ 
ders. He put some in his hair. “Now I am a great 


70 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


warrior,” lie thought. But there was no one there 
to see but his pet rabbit. 

A little hooting owl sat every night in the tree 
above Brave Badger’s wigwam. Down in the woods 
he heard the whippoorwill singing when it grew dark. 
Often he shot a duck with his arrows; but now winter 
was coming and the birds would soon be gone. 

When the snow fell every day he put skins over 
his tent to make it warmer. He made snowshoes to 
go over the snow. He tracked many kinds of game 
and most of the time he had meat in his tent. When 
the river was frozen over he made skates of basswood 
bark and went many miles on the ice. 

One night he heard steps about his tent. The next 
morning he found the tracks of a bear. It had come 
to get some of the venison that Brave Badger had 
killed that day. Now he was afraid that the bear 
would come upon him some night when he was asleep. 

The next day he moved all his things to a cave in 
the rocks on the other side of the river. It was much 
warmer and drier here and the big rocks made a fine 
j>lace for a fire. He often cut through the ice for 
water. He melted snow in a hollow of a stone. He 
first built a fire to warm the stone and then put the 
snow in the warm place. 

He rolled a large stone to close the mouth of the 


BRAVE BADGER GOES TO THE FOREST 


71 


cave and now he slept soundly because he knew noth¬ 
ing could hurt him. 

Soon there was so much snow that all the animals 
hid away in the trunks of the trees and the ice was 
so thick that Brave Badger could get no fish. But he 
knew how to cut through the bark of the trees and eat 
some of the inner bark to keep from starving. For 
several days while a big storm lasted he was very 
hungry. 

When it was over he went out to look for tracks in 
the snow. There were none in sight. Under a large 
tree Brave Badger stood and made a noise like the 
chipmunks. Soon several little chipmunks came out 
of the tree and ran over the top of the snow. Brave 
Badger ran to the trunk of the tree and leaned against 
it so the little animals could not get back to their nests. 
He fitted an arrow to his bow and killed a chipmunk. 
Then he quickly killed another. His aim was true, 
for he was very hungry. 

He was too hungry to wait to cook the tender flesh 
so he stripped off the skins and ate the raw meat as 
fast as he could. 

The sun came out during the day and other animals 
appeared. By tracking them on his snowshoes Brave 
Badger soon had a store of food. 

One day he found the tracks of other snowshoes and 


72 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


was much excited. He could not tell whether they 
were the tracks of an Indian or a white man. Wise 
Owl had told him the white man’s tracks always 
toed out. Brave Badger was half afraid and hid in his 
cave. The next morning he crept out to see if there 
were more tracks. He found no fresh tracks. Those 
that had frightened him led away to the mountains 
and he saw no sign of their return. 

At last the snow melted slowly away and signs of 
spring appeared. Now it was easy to get fish and one 
day Brave Badger killed a deer. He needed the skin 
for clothing. 

He could not dress the skin as well as Gentle Fawn, 
but he smoked it over a fire and made it soft enough 
to do very well. 

Soon the frogs began to 
sing in the stream near by 
and the wild flowers began to 
bloom. Brave Badger found 
a few green things 
to eat. There were 
plenty of birds, too. 
He began to think 
of the time when he 
could go back to the 

“Found the tracks of other snowshoes ” lodge. 



THE BEAR HUNT 


73 


CHAPTER XI 
THE BEAR HUNT 

White Chief and Wild Hare were not sent to 
the forest alone, but the hunters let them go on the 
hunts. In the beginning of winter Wise Owl and the 
other old men made snowshoes all day long. Now that 
the buffalo meat and the skins were ready for winter 
they began to think of getting the furs of the wild 
animals to take to the fur traders and exchange for 
beads and bright-colored blankets. 

The Indian braves were all helping to finish the 
snowshoes. The frames were of hickory. They were 
rounded in the front and bent to a point at the heel. 
Strips of deerskin were neatly laced across them like 
a tennis racket. 

“Now we can go as fast as the deer across the 
snow,” said Fighting Bear. “Let us go soon before 
the bear gets ready for his winter sleep.” 

“I saw the tracks of the bear not far away,” said 
Wise Owl. “It was only yesterday.” 

“Yes,” said White Chief, who was with him, “I 
wanted to follow and shoot him but Wise Owl would 
not let me hunt the bear alone.” 

“Where did you see them?” asked Fighting Bear. 


74 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


White Chief turned and pointed toward the north. 

Early the next morning ten Indian braves with 
Wild Hare and White Chief started off oh their snow- 
shoes. They would be gone several days. The squaws 
had made ready for them several pouches of pounded 
corn and all had good bows and plenty of arrows in 
their quivers. They walked Indian file with the Indian 
boys bringing up the rear. 

Part of the time they were walking through the 
woods and some of the time they were walking on 
the ice of the rivers. They walked many miles before 
they found the footprints of the bear, and then it was 
getting late in the day. They made a fire in the shelter 
of a great rock. They spread it out to warm the 
ground where they would sleep. After eating the 
pounded corn, they rolled up in their skins with their 
feet to the fire and went to sleep. 

In the morning after a breakfast of more corn they 
started off to follow the bear tracks. There were 
tracks of two bears. One was larger than the other. 
The hunters kept together, for it was not safe for 
one brave to attack a bear alone. The tracks led here 
and there all over the rocks. 

Suddenly Fighting Bear gave a signal and started 
to run straight ahead. Four of the braves followed 
him and White Chief followed at a distance. Around 


THE BEAR HUNT 


75 


a rock they caught sight of the bear. White Chief 
climbed to the top of the rock and got an arrow ready. 
When the Indians came close to the big black fellow 
he turned and saw that he was followed. He drew 
himself up on his hind feet ready to strike with his 
paws if they came near. The braves knew a blow 
from those paws would kill them. They let their 
arrows fly. 

Some arrows struck the heavy fur on his back and 
did no harm. One struck his paw and he yelped 
with pain. Another lodged in his body. 

But he was not so badly wounded that he could not 
fight. He made a dash at the braves. His sudden 
movement knocked Fighting Bear down. The braves 
could not get more arrows ready, so they rushed at 
him with their clubs. Now was White Chief’s chance. 



He took careful aim from the rock and sent an arrow 
back of the bear’s ear. Over 
went the bear with a savage growl 
and they had to drag Fighting 
Bear almost from under his dead 
body. 

Fighting Bear was not much 
hurt. He was soon 
cheering with the others 
and White Chief was a “Ready to strike with his paws ’ 


76 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


great hero. Two of the braves went to get long, heavy 
strips of bark to make a sled to take the bear home. 

4 ‘How thick his fur is! He is full of fat,” cried the 
Indians. 

“He is very heavy. We shall have a hard time to 
get him home,” said Fighting Bear. “Where are the 
other braves 1” 

As they started home, dragging the heavy body, 
they heard the rest of the Indians shouting and Wild 
Hare came running to tell them that his party had a 
bear, too. 

The second bear was not so large as the first, but 
they had had a great fight to kill it. One of the 
braves had a broken arm because the bear had struck 
it. They made another sled and started on the long 
trip home. The sleds glided along the snow, but the 
bears were very heavy and the men had to pull. 

After a time it grew dark. Wild Hare and White 
Chief were so tired they could hardly make their feet 
go, but being real Indian hunters, they could not say a 
word. They pinched each other to keep awake. 

It grew darker and darker. Fighting Bear was 
leading the way. He knew every inch of the trail, 
and he knew by the feel of the wind on his face and 
the stars and moon in the sky and by many other 
signs just how to take the shortest way to the lodge. 


THE BEAR HUNT 


77 


All at once a low, moaning sound came on the 
breeze behind them. 

“The wolves are following us!” cried one hunter. 

“They smell the bear meat. We must go faster. 
There is a large pack of them and we cannot shoot 
them in.the dark,” called Fighting Bear. 

The Indians went at top speed. White Chief and 
Wild Hare forgot they were tired. They did not linger 
behind now, but ran ahead with Fighting Bear. The 
faster they went the faster the wolves gained upon 
them. Now the wolves were very near. How dreadful 
their howls sounded! But now the party could see 
a light. Some Indian boys had come to meet them 
with blazing torches. The braves seized the torches 
and waved them at the pack of wolves. Wolves do not 
like fire. They ran back a little way. The hunters 
hurried ahead and dragged the bears into camp. 

Fighting Bear hurried to throw wood on the camp 
fire and when it blazed up, the wolves went away. 

All the Indian squaws and warriors came out of 
the camp. The women had a great feast ready for the 
tired and hungry hunters. All the Indian boys wanted 
to hear how White Chief helped to kill the bear. 

After they had feasted and rested, the Indian 
braves smoked a pipe. This was their way of saying 
“Thank you” to the Great Spirit. 


78 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


CHAPTER XII 
THE BEAVER HUNT 

Wise Owl came home one day and said the beavers 
were building a dam across the river about five miles 
away. 

“We must get some skins/’ said Fighting Bear. 
“The palefaces like the soft skin of the beaver. They 
will give us thunder sticks for them.” 

“What are thunder sticks'?” asked Brown Bear. 

“They are guns,” said White Chief. “The pale¬ 
faces shoot squirrels with them just as you do with 
arrows. My father used to let me have a gun. They 
make a great noise and the shot can reach a long 
way.” 

“Next snowfall,” said Fighting Bear, “we will 
have thunder sticks to take on the long hunt. But 
first we must get the skins for the palefaces.” 

Wise Owl was to lead the hunters to the beaver 
dam. The Indian boys were allowed to go. 

“The beavers often work in the night,” said Wise 
Owl, “when the air is still. In the daytime they rest 
at home. We must hunt them when they are in their 
lodges.” 

“Once,” said another old hunter, “I went to a 


THE BEAVER HUNT 


79 



“Watched the beavers build a dam” 


beaver dam, but the beavers heard me and all swam 
away under the ice.” 

“We must be very still,” said Fighting Bear. “We 
must creep up without a sound. ’ ’ 

When they reached the stream they found that the 
beavers had built a dam clear across it. It was about 
as high as Wild Hare’s head. 

Brave Badger and Wild Hare had once watched 
the beavers build a dam. They hid in the branches 
of a tree near the banks of the stream. It was bright 
moonlight and the little Indian boys were very still. 

They saw the beavers dig up the soft, wet mud. 
The little builders held it against their breasts with 
their forelegs and swam to the dam. They put it in 
place and patted it down with their feet. 








80 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


“The water will wash it away,” whispered Wild 
Hare. 4 ‘The mud will not stay there with the water 
pushing against it.” 

“Just watch,” answered Brave Badger. “The 
beavers are swimming out with a load of sticks. They 
will put the sticks across the wall and fasten them 
in with more mud. Then the dam will hold.” 

The beavers worked very fast. Soon the dam was 
safe and strong. 

Brave Badger and Wild Hare got sleepy and went 
home. The next morning when they went back to the 
beaver dam, it was done. The beavers had worked 
all night. 

A large tree was lying on the ground. The beavers 
had cut it down with their sharp little teeth. They 
had gone round and round the trunk, biting deeper 
each time. Then the tree had fallen over. It was a 
large poplar tree. Wise Owl told the Indian boys that 
the beavers used poplar bark for food. Above the 
dam the beavers had built their strange little mud 
houses, like so many beehives. 

Wild Hare told all this to White Chief. They had 
been walking very fast and now the beaver dam was 
in sight. There was ice on the river and the braves 
were getting ready to walk on the ice to the beaver 
houses. If they broke through the ice, the beavers 


THE BEAVER HUNT 


81 


would hear the cracking and get away. The tops of 
their houses stood above the water, but there were 
openings below so Mr. Beaver could swim to the 
shore before anyone saw him. 

Wise Owl and the boys waited on the bank while 
the hunters tried the ice. 

“We will take the first house/’ said Fighting Bear. 

They crept up softly, one by one. They looked for 
the entrance to the house. Fighting Bear was to 
break in the top of the house while the others watched 
for the beavers to come out. 

Inside the house were four fat beavers fast asleep. 
They did not hear a sound. Crash! Bang! Their 
roof came in over their heads. The Indian hunters 
were striking with their heavy clubs. One beaver 
got away and swam to the bank, but the other three 
were killed. Some of the braves broke through the 
ice and got wet. The water was, oh, so cold! 

By this time the other beavers had all been fright¬ 
ened away. The Indians took the skins off the three 
dead beavers. 

“The palefaces will give us many blankets for 
these warm skins/’ said the Chief. He was much 
pleased. 

“We will come again when the ice is strong,” said 
Fighting Bear. 


82 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


Wild Hare and White Chief ran ahead to the camp 
to tell the news. They were learning many new things 
every day. 

Early in the winter the Indian braves went on the 
long hunt. The squaws got the buffalo skins ready 
and prepared many bags of pounded corn. The hunt¬ 
ers made many arrows tipped with hard stone. They 
put new strings on their bows. They sharpened their 
stone knives and had a dance to ask the help of the 
Great Spirit. 

They would be gone many weeks and would come 
back with a supply of deerskins and meat for the 
winter. 

White Chief and Wild Hare were to go with them. 
The pair were very happy. The Chief was so fond of 
White Chief that he let him do some things the other 
Indian boys could not do. 

Through the woods and across the frozen streams 
marched a great band of Indian hunters, one after 
another. Three suns had gone down before they 
reached the hunting grounds. Scouts had been sent 
out many days before to find a place. They had found 
the path of the deer leading to the stream. They knew 
many deer had gone back and forth because the 
ground was much worn. 

The Indians slept the fourth night around their 


THE BEAVER HUNT 


83 


camp fire. The next morning they made deer traps 
along the path. The traps were fastened to young 
trees that were bent over to the ground. When the 
deer walked through the trap it fastened a loop 
around his hind legs. Then the tree would rise up 
and take the legs of the deer with it. 

In the morning White Chief went with the Chief 
and Fighting Bear to look in the traps. All had been 
sprung. In the first one they found a beautiful deer 
held fast by its hind legs. It was still alive and Fight¬ 
ing Bear killed it with an arrow. 

For a week the braves killed the deer and cut up 
the meat and dried it before the fire. They packed 
the meat in rolls of bark so the wolves would not get 
it. They feasted on the venison. 

The next morning they got ready for the big deer 
hunt. They made a fence of the brush in the shape 
of a Y. It surrounded a great space. Some of the 
hunters hid at the, point of the V. The others went 
out and set fire to the woods. They watched the open¬ 
ing of the fence and when the deer came running 
away from the flames they drove them into the trap 
of brush. Soon there were fifty deer in the trap. They 
could not get out. 

They ran here and there while the hunters killed 
them with their arrows. 


84 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


The flames were raging in the forest. Soon more 
deer approached with the hunters following. The 
deer had to run into the trap. The hunters in the V 
shot them. After a hard day’s work, the braves 
counted the deer and found they had killed sixty- 
seven. Only a few had got away. 

The next day the hunters took off the skins and 
dried much of the meat. They worked for a week 
or more. 

Meantime the trappers were bringing in furs. 
White Chief proudly brought the skin of a lynx that 
he had killed all by himself. 

The lynx is an animal hard to shoot and the braves 
praised his skill. Wild Hare had killed a fox and 
there were many other fine skins to take to the 
traders. 

“Now,” said the Chief, “it 
is time to go home.” 

They had all the skins and 
meat they could carry. It 
was a long, hard trip, for 
they had a great load. 

White Chief was very glad 
he had come. He had learned 
many things about traveling 
in the woods. Always he 



THE BEAVER HUNT 


85 


hoped that some day he might go back to his people. 
He thought of the time he went with his father on the 
deer hunt. He remembered how kind his mother was 
and the songs she used to sing to him and Ned. 

He wondered if she would know him now. He had 
grown so large and his skin was dark with the oil 
and the paint that the Indians used. But his eyes 
were blue and often the squaws talked of his belong¬ 
ing to the palefaces. When Cunning Fox wanted to 
pick a quarrel, he called the white boy “ Blue-eyed 
paleface.” 

Whenever anything was said about White Chief’s 
people the Chief was very angry. He said, “White 
Chief is my son. When I am gone he will be Chief 
of this tribe. He will never go back to his people.” 

Because the Chief was so kind to him White Chief 
did not speak of his father and mother, but he always 
knew that he must go some day to find them. 


86 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


CHAPTER XIII 

WHITE CHIEF RUNS AWAY 

White Chief thought every day of Brave Badger 
alone in the forest. He said to himself, “If Brave 
Badger can take care of himself in the woods, so can 
I. I am a coward not to start off alone to find my 
father and mother.” 

One night, when all the camp was sleeping, White 
Chief crept softly out into the woods. He had on his 
new deerskin shirt and leggings. He had his good, 
strong bow and a quiver full of arrows. He took with 
him one of the dogs. White Chief dared not tell Wild 
Hare good-bye for fear Wild Hare would tell the 
Chief. White Chief knew the Chief would not let 
him go. 

He walked as fast as he could straight into the 
forest. He was a long way off by morning. Part of 
the way he waded in the stream and part of the way 
he swam so the Indians could not follow his tracks. 
The next night he slept in the trunk of a hollow tree. 
He shot some ducks for his breakfast and cooked 
them over a fire. He buried the ashes so that the 
Indians could not trace him. 

It was getting warmer every day, for spring had 


WHITE CHIEF RUNS AWAY 


87 


come. The birds were singing in the trees. They were 
building their nests. But White Chief was glad of 
the warm skin he had brought with him to wrap up 
in at night. He ate birds’ eggs, squirrels, and rabbits. 
He could make a fire in a few minutes and hang the 
meat on a long stick and cook it in the flames. He 
was always too hungry to wait very long. 

He was going toward the mountain. He was sure 
this was the same one he had climbed with his father. 
He went on and on, sleeping in the trees and stopping 
to cook meat when he could get it. Part of the way 
he followed the river and got some fish. 

The first day or two he was in great fear lest the 
Indians should catch him and take him back. He did 
not want to be in disgrace with the Chief. But soon 
he was past this fear. He talked to his dog and 
thought often of the joy it would be to see little 
Ned again. 

The third day, as they were walking along the 
river, the dog ran sniffing up to a large pile of rocks. 
He barked loudly and acted very strange. White 
Chief saw something move behind the rock. He 
seized his arrow and quickly strung his bow. A face 
appeared over the rock. It was that of an Indian boy. 
White Chief gave a great shout of joy, for Brave 
Badger came running toward him! How glad they 


88 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


were to see each other! They jumped up and down 
and laughed long and loudly. The dog jumped up on 
Brave Badger and licked his face as if it remem¬ 
bered him. 

“Have you come to stay in the forest, too?” asked 
Brave Badger. 

He was greatly surprised when he knew that White 
Chief had run away. 

“How many sleeps are you away from the camp?” 
asked Brave Badger. 

White Chief told him he had been away three 
nights. 

“Then I am a long way from my people. 
I will go with you to find the palefaces,” 
said Brave Badger. 

White Chief was very 
happy. 

It was better to have 
company. 

“I will return again in 
the summer to the Indian 
lodge,” said Brave Bad¬ 
ger. 

Brave Badger had some 
ducks cooking in the sand. 
“They jumped up and down” He had dug a hole and 



WHITE CHIEF RUNS AWAY 89 

built a fire in it. Then he put the ducks, feathers and 
all, into the hot sand and coals, and covered them. 
When they were roasted he stripped off the skin and 
the feathers and the meat was tender and good. 

That night the two boys slept in the cave. The next 
morning they shot a deer. Wise Owl had taught White 
Chief how to call the deer and Brave Badger said 
there were many in the woods. White Chief put a 
thin strip of birch bark between two flat sticks and 
rubbed the sticks together. It made a sound like the 
bleat of a young deer. Soon a little doe came peeping 
through the trees. White Chief kept rubbing the 
pieces of wood while Brave Badger killed her with 
an arrow. 

The boys had venison for breakfast and were glad 
of the deerskin. They cut off steaks to carry with 
them as they walked, for they did not want to take 
time to hunt. 

When Wild Hare woke in the morning and found 
that White Chief was gone, he ran to the river to see 
if his comrade were taking a swim, but could see 
nothing of him. Soon Brown Bear and Cunning Fox 
came and they all looked for White Chief. 

They asked Wise Owl if he had seen the lad. They 
asked Gentle Fawn and everyone in the lodge, but 
no one had seen White Chief. When the Chief knew 


90 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


his son was gone, he called two Indian braves and 
told them to follow the boy’s tracks. 

Wild Hare said, “He has gone to find Brave 
Badger.” 

Gentle Fawn had seen him sitting by himself, very 
sad, many times, and she knew he was thinking of 
home. 

She said, “He has gone to find his mother.” 

Wise Ow T l said: “He is only hunting in the woods. 
He wanted to go and live in the woods alone like 
Brave Badger, for he is old enough to go to the woods. 
The Chief would not let him go and White Chief is 
almost a man. He has gone to show what he can do. 
He will come back.” 

But Gentle Fawn shook her head and said again, 
“He has gone to find his mother.” 

The Indian braves followed White Chief’s tracks 
until they came to the river. Here they could no 
longer follow. They went up and down the banks, but 
they could not find the place where he had left the 
water. For three days they hunted and then they 
came back to camp. They said, “White Chief is 
drowned in the river. He went in but he did not come 
out. He did not go to find the palefaces, for there 
are no tracks.” 

Had they gone on another day, they might have 


WHITE CHIEF RUNS AWAY 


91 


found both White Chief and Brave Badger. They 
were lazy braves and the Chief was angry. 

“He will come back/’ said Wise Owl. “The young 
brave has only gone to try his strength in the forest.” 

Then Wise Owl called Wild Hare and Brown Bear 
and told them this story:— 

“Once an Indian boy went to hunt. He went into 
a cave to sleep. In the cave was a nest of porcu¬ 
pines. The mother tried to feed the Indian boy. She 
gave him the food her children ate, but the Indian 
boy could not eat it. 

“So she called the animals in the woods near by 
and asked them who would feed this strange creature. 
She said he would not eat the food her children ate 
and asked them to tell her what to do. 

“The gray fox looked very wise. He said, ‘He is 
the child of the red man and eats cooked food. I 
cannot feed him. My children eat the geese from the 
river and the birds from the trees, and we do not 
cook our food. ’ 

“The brown wolf said, ‘I live in a den with my 
cubs. It is cold and dirty. This child could not live in 
a den and eat what my children eat. Besides, my 
children are always hungry and I could never get 
enough for them all/ 

“The red deer was sorry for the little Indian boy. 


92 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


He said, ‘My children live in the bnshes. They eat 
grass and the buds of the trees. When we are hunted 
we run very fast. This child could never keep up with 
us when we run. He has only two feet. I cannot take 
the little red child. ’ 

“The porcupine did not know what to do. 

“But just then the bear arose. He said, ‘I will 
take the red child. My little ones have warm coats 
and we live in a hollow tree. He can eat nuts as 
my little ones do. Will any of you help to gather 
the nuts?’ 

“They all promised to help gather nuts for the 
red child. He went to live in the hollow tree with 
the three cubs and the mother bear. 

“One day some Indians came and killed all the 
bears. The boy hid in the hollow tree, but the Indians 
found him and took him to their camp. 

“He was very wild and he talked like the bears. 
He did not love the Indians because they had killed 
the bears who were kind to him. 

“The Indian boy was not allowed to return to the 
forest and he learned to shoot animals and birds. 
But he would never kill a bear.” 

“Wise Owl,” asked Cunning Fox, “do you think 
White Chief is living with the bears?” 

“Who can tell? Who can tell?” said Wise Owl. 


WHITE CHIEF RETURNS 


93 


CHAPTER XIV 

WHITE CHIEF RETURNS 

After a day and a night Brave Badger and White 
Chief came to the foot of the mountain. There they 
camped for several days. One slept in the trunk of 
a tree and the other slept in a hollow log. It was 
getting warmer every day, but the nights were cold 
and the ground was very wet. 

Brave Badger cut up the deerskin and made two 
new pairs of moccasins. They were not very well 
made, but White Chief praised them greatly, for his 
were worn out. White Chief spent the time fixing 
up his arrows. Brave Badger strung his bow anew 
with deerskin sinews and now they were ready for 
the climb. 

Every step White Chief grew more eager to reach 
his father’s cabin. He had been gone three winters 
and had grown a great deal. He wondered if his 
mother would know him. Little Ned must be a big 
boy by this time. He could shoot a gun now and he 
would not remember White Chief at all. White Chief 
tried to get some of the oil and paint from his face 
so that his skin would not look so dark. Every day he 


94 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


talked to Brave Badger as he did at home to be sure 
he had not forgotten to speak English. 

Brave Badger could not understand him, but 
always laughed. Halfway over the mountain they 
came upon a white trapper. Brave Badger saw the 
smoke of his fire one morning. He was afraid to go 
near, but when White Chief saw it was a paleface 
he hastened to talk to the trapper, who was surprised 
to see two Indian boys alone in the woods. He was 
still more surprised when one of them spoke to him 
in his own language. 

He was quick to see that the lad had blue eyes and 
he asked White Chief many questions. Among other 
things he told the boy that the Indians had been very 
cruel to the whites on the other side of the mountains 
and there were very few settlers left. Many of 
them had been killed and the others had gone back 
east, where they could live without fear of their red 
neighbors. He said he did not know Mr. Drummond. 

White Chief was very sad at this news. He told it 
to Brave Badger. But Brave Badger was not ready 
to turn back. He told White Chief that they would 
keep on and find out for themselves if his people were 
gone. They slept near the trapper that night and ate 
some of the venison he had killed, and the next day 
they reached the top of the mountain. 




WHITE CHIEF RETURNS 


95 


There was still snow on the peak, but as they went 
down the eastern slope it grew warmer. The wild 
flowers were beautiful and they began to look for the 
smoke of the cabins below in the valley. 

In two days more they came upon a stream and 
White Chief said they would follow it, for he believed 
it was the same one that led by the cabin. A few 
miles farther they came to the deer lick where he used 
to come with his father. 

White Chief was too excited to sleep. His heart 
beat high with hope. Now he knew that in another 
day he would reach his home. He built a fire for the 
night, while Brave Badger went out and killed three 
birds and two squirrels. 

“How well you shoot!” said White Chief. “You 
have learned much this winter. You seldom miss 
your game.” 

“Yes,” said Brave Badger, “I had to hit my mark 
or go hungry.” 

“I shall be glad to get hold of a gun again,” said 
White Chief. “My father will be surprised to see how 
well I can aim, too.” 

The next morning they came in sight of the trees 
that White Chief remembered so well, but there was 
no smoke, nor were there signs of anyone about. 
White Chief ran ahead, while Brave Badger watched 


96 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


from behind a tree. There was no cabin there. A 
great black spot on the ground showed where there 
had been a fire and nothing was left of the place that 
had been his home but a heap of ashes. 

White Chief looked all about to be sure he was not 
mistaken. Yes, there was the corn patch, now grown 
up to weeds. 

He was ready to cry, but Brave Badger was look¬ 
ing from behind the tree. White Chief could never 
explain how he felt to Brave Badger, for Indian 
braves never shed tears. 

He motioned to Brave Badger to come and to¬ 
gether they looked through all the ashes to see if 
any person had been burned to death in the fire, but 
they could find no trace of human bones. 

“The Indians do not kill the palefaces unless there 
is war,” said Brave Badger. “They took the pale¬ 
faces away with them.” 

White Chief remembered how his mother had 
always feared the Indians. If he could only know 
that she was alive! He had been so well treated in 
the Indian lodge that he believed Brave Badger was 
right. 

They looked about a long time, even peering into 
two cabins near by, but both were empty. There was 
no one to tell White Chief what had become of his 


WHITE CHIEF RETURNS 


97 


people, and there was 
nothing for him to do 
but to go back with 
Brave Badger to the 
Indian lodge. 

So Brave Badger 
and White Chief 
started back over the « There was no cabin there - 
mountain. 

About ten days later, as the Indian squaws were 
away from the lodge planting corn in the open ground, 
two faces came peeping through the trees near the 
wigwams. The Indian braves were gone on a hunt, 
but old Wise Owl sat by the fire asleep 

Little Running Deer was playing on the ground 
near Gentle Pawn, for he was now much too large 
for his cradle board. Yellow Butterfly watched him 
as she helped her mother plant the corn. They dug 
up the ground with a crooked stick and planted the 
corn in the holes. In every hole they put a part of a 
dead fish. The squaws were working very fast. They 
wanted to get the corn all planted before the rain 
came and the Rain Spirit had been sending out black 
signs of rain all the morning. 

Wise Owl heard a twig snap and opened his eyes. 
To his great joy there stood Brave Badger and White 



98 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


Chief. Their skin clothes were old and torn, and they 
looked tired and hungry. Wise Owl clapped his hands 
and some of the squaws came running to the camp to 
see who the strangers might be. 

Gentle Fawn was very happy when she saw her 
brave son. Many nights in the cold winter she had 
asked the Great Spirit to take care of her boy alone 
in the forest and give him meat for his arrow. Now 
here he was back, safe and sound. They would have 
a great feast and Brave Badger would be praised and 
waited on many days while he lay upon the deerskins 
and rested after his long winter. She was glad to 
see White Chief, too, for she feared he had been killed 
and eaten by some of the wild animals of the forest. 

When the hunters came home and found the two 
Indian lads they began to dress for the feast. Those 
who had earned the right to wear feathers in their 
hair got themselves ready. They wore the buckskin 
shirts that their squaws had trimmed with porcupine 
quills and beads. The Chief got out his beautiful red 
blanket. 

Wild Hare had been swimming in the river and 
when he and Brown Bear and Cunning Fox came and 
found the boys were home, they were the most 
excited of all. 

The Chief was so glad to see White Chief home 


WHITE CHIEF RETURNS 


99 


again that he asked no questions. He said White 
Chief had been a brave lad to go to hunt Brave Badger 
in the forest. He deserved as much praise as Brave 
Badger, for he had gone alone to the forest of his 
own free will, and he had not run away to find the 
palefaces. 

White Chief did not know what to say, for Brave 
Badger knew the truth, but Brave Badger said, “Hold 
your peace! An Indian brave does not reply to his 
Chief.” 

So White Chief could only be still and take the 
honor that he did not deserve. 

Gentle Fawn and the other squaws soon had the 
feast ready. The Indian warriors sat about in their 
best robes, with their faces painted. They put red 
paint on Brave Badger’s cheeks and red on White 
Chief’s forehead and after the feast they all danced 
until they were tired. 

For many days the lads were feasted and waited 
on by Wild Hare and the other Indian boys. But 
before they could become warriors they must go 
through the long fast. They must go again into the 
forest and go without food for many days. 

One morning they were led away by Fighting Bear 
and the Chief. The third day White Chief grew very 
sick and dizzy because he was not used to going with- 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


100 



“Danced until they were tired** 

















WHITE CHIEF RETURNS 


101 


out food. Brave Badger had grown used to being- 
hungry when he was in the woods. Both the lads 
lay on the ground. Wise Owl came and gave them a 
little water, but he said they must go without food 
for ten days. 

Every morning Fighting Bear and the Chief came 
to look at them. Every day the boys grew weaker and 
weaker. They slept a great deal and had strange 
dreams. These dreams were supposed to be the teach¬ 
ings of the Great Spirit. 

Wise Owl was afraid White Chief would die. He 
said, “A paleface lad cannot go so long without 
food.” 

He begged the Chief to bring the boy home, but 
White Chief said he would stay as long in the woods 
as Brave Badger. He would not be feasted again 
without earning the right. 

Both lads were nearly dead when the braves at 
last brought them food. White Chief was carried 
back to the lodge so weak that he could not speak, 
but as soon as Brave Badger had eaten, he was ready 
to w T alk part of the way. 

Now there was a second feast and Brave Badger 
and White Chief became real Indian warriors. 


102 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


CHAPTER XV 

WHITE CHIEF BECOMES A HUNTER 

In the spring White Chief and Brave Badger 
started off together to tramp over the country. There 
was a band of young braves with them. They hunted 
and fished, and visited several other Indian tribes. 
When they came to the new lodges they walked out 
into the open with their hands held toward the sky. 
This showed they were friendly and meant no harm. 
They talked to the other Indians in the sign language. 

The Indians always offered them food and it was 
very impolite to refuse what was offered or to leave 
any of what was given them. If the braves could not 
eat all the food they must get some other brave to 
eat it. 

One day several of the braves fell upon a white 
man’s cabin and killed all the people. White Chief 
was not with them, but when they came back to camp 
with a white woman’s scalp, White Chief thought of 
his mother. 

He could not make the others understand how sad 
he felt, for they thought it a brave thing to take a 
paleface’s scalp. 

A few days later, as they were camping for the 


WHITE CHIEF BECOMES A HUNTER 


103 



"Twitted him with being a coward” 


night, a band of fifteen white men attacked them. 
Brave Badger led the Indians in battle and when it 
was over, two of the braves were dead and the Indians 
had the scalps of two wdiite men. White Chief fought 
hard to drive the whites away, but he would not take 
a scalp. 

Once Cunning Fox twitted him with being a cow¬ 
ard because he would not kill a white man. 

White Chief replied: “I am not a warrior. I am 
a hunter. On my shoulder is the mark of an arrow 
and a deer’s horn. It was there when I was born. 
My father was a great deer hunter. I will not take the 
scalps of men, but I will dare all the young braves 



104 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


to go to the forest and see who will bring back the 
most deerskins.” 

Ten young braves went out. One came back with 
ten skins, another with twelve; but White Chief 
came back with forty. 

“Now, who will call me a woman?” asked White 
Chief. 

White Chief was six feet tall and very straight. 
His eyes were blue and his hair was soft and light- 
colored. He wore it shaved to a scalp lock as the 
Indians did, and darkened it* with oil. Gentle Fawn 
had made him a beautiful shirt of tanned buckskin 
and Yellow Butterfly had trimmed it with porcupine 
quills and beads and leather fringe. 

White Chief could talk very well in the council. 
He told the Indians that the Great Spirit did not 
want them to fight with the palefaces. He asked them 
to make a treaty with the whites. The Chief was very 
proud of White Chief, but he did not like to hear 
the lad speak of his people. 

He said, “I am the father of White Chief. I am an 
old man now and soon I shall go to the Happy Hunt¬ 
ing Grounds. The White Chief will take my place 
and be Chief of the tribe.” 

But the other Indians said: “White Chief is not a 
warrior. He will not fight the palefaces because they 


WHITE CHIEF BECOMES A HUNTER 105 

are his people. We will not have a blue-eyed paleface 
for our chief. White Chief is a prophet. We will listen 
to his words, but he cannot be our Chief. He has 
never killed a man.” 

Yellow Butterfly was now a beautiful young maid¬ 
en. Gentle Fawn and the old squaws had taught her 
all the things a maiden should know. She always 
obeyed them and never passed in front of them in 
the lodge. She helped her mother prepare food for 
the braves and waited until they had finished before 
she ate. 

She carried wood and water, and was cheerful and 
willing to wait on her brothers. She helped her 
mother tan the hides and bead the moccasins and 
she could now do these things as well as Gentle Fawn. 
It was dirty work to skin the buffaloes and when she 
was done Yellow Butterfly bathed in the stream. 
There were leaves with a sweet smell that she rubbed 
on her skin. She colored her cheeks with paint weed. 
She dressed in deerskin. Her robe was trimmed with 
fringe and beads. 

Yellow Butterfly talked to the Spirit of the Corn. 
She believed this spirit was a beautiful woman, whom 
she wanted to resemble. 

When she was dressed in her pretty robe she went 
into the forest to talk to the Spirit of the Corn and 


106 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


ask her to give them a good harvest. There was the 
Spirit of the Squash, too, and Yellow Butterfly talked 
to them both. 

When she walked in the forest Gentle Fawn or 
another squaw was always with her. She gathered 
turkey feathers for the Indians’ arrows and gave 
them to her brothers. 

One day she found an eagle’s feather. This she 
gave to White Chief. 

The Chief liked Yellow Butterfly. 

He said, “She shall be the squaw of White Chief. 
Then he will always stay with the Indians and never 
want to go back to his people. ’ ’ 

Cunning Fox was very angry. He wanted the 
eagle’s feather. He wanted Yel¬ 
low Butterfly for his squaw. 

He said, “ Yellow Butterfly 
shall never be the squaw of the 
paleface.” 

Wild Hare and Brown Bear 
and Cunning Fox were all fierce 
warriors now. They had all 
taken scalps. Brave Badger was 
very fond of White Chief. Since 
they had been in the forest to¬ 
gether they had been like broth- 



WHITE CHIEF BECOMES A HUNTER 


107 


ers. White Chief could wrestle and run and beat the 
other braves at every test of skill, but he had never 
taken a scalp. 

Cunning Fox called him a woman and twitted him 
every day. One day Cunning Fox found a white 
woman and her children alone in a cabin and killed 
them. When he came home with the white woman’s 
scalp, White Chief was angry. 

He said, “Go and take the scalp of a white brave 
who can defend himself. Who wants the scalp of a 
woman?” 

“This blue-eyed paleface has never taken any 
scalp,” taunted Cunning Fox. “He is afraid. He is 
a coward. He is a woman!” 

The Indian braves all laughed, for they saw noth¬ 
ing wrong in taking the scalps of their enemies. 
White Chief could not reply, for none of them could 
understand. 

Yellow Butterfly heard. She dared not say a word, 
but she did not laugh, and White Chief was glad. 

That winter the Chief died and Cunning Fox was 
made the new Chief. Brave Badger was sorry, for 
he loved White Chief, but Brown Bear and Wild Hare 
were true to Cunning Fox and said, “How can we 
have a paleface chief who has never taken a scalp? 


108 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


CHAPTER XVI 

TROUBLE WITH THE WHITE PEOPLE 

Every year the Indians took their skins to the fur 
traders, some of whom were not honest. The Indians 
soon tired of the blankets and beads, and wanted guns 
and firewater. White Chief knew more about guns 
than anyone in the Indian camp. He taught the 
braves how to use them. 

When the white traders came to the Indian camp 
White Chief talked to them. He asked them if they 
knew Mr. Drummond, but none of them could tell 
him if his father and mother were still living. Once 
he was ready to go away with some white trappers. 
But he knew he would find himself among strangers. 
Brave Badger was just like a brother to him and he 
did not want to leave Yellow Butterfly. 

That winter they nearly starved in the Indian 
lodge. The braves came back from the long hunt with 
little game. The snow was very deep and Fighting- 
Bear said, “The palefaces are driving away our game. 
They are taking our cornfields and soon the poor 
Indians must die. We must drive them from our 
country.” 

“Wo will kill the palefaces. We will make war 


TROUBLE WITH THE WHITE PEOPLE 109 

on them,” cried Chief Cunning Fox. He was very 
angry. “They have stolen our hunting grounds. 
There was plenty of game in the forest until these 
long knives came and drove it all away.” 

Children died for lack of food that winter, and 
Fighting Bear sat by the fire, very sad and quiet. 
There was a war going on between the white people 
and the Indians. Farther north, the other tribes of 
Indians were fighting for their hunting grounds. 
When a hunter or trapper went into the woods he was 
likely to be shot down by the Indian arrow. When 
a white man came home at night he might find his 
wife and children scalped. White men’s houses and 
barns were burned with fires set by Indian arrows 
that carried burning tufts of grass to the roofs. 

The white people gathered at night in the forts 
to protect their families. When warning of an Indian 
attack was given they seized a few of their things 
and slept within the walls of the fort, while the men 
drove away the prowling Indians with their guns. 

In the Indian camp the warriors were making new 
tomahawks of deers’ horns set in wooden handles. 
They sharpened stones and fastened a handle to each 
so it could be used like a hatchet. They exchanged 
furs for all the powder and shot they could get, for 
now many of them had guns like the white men. 


110 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 



“Slept within the walls of the fort” 
























































































































































































































































TROUBLE WITH THE WHITE PEOPLE 111 

Chief Cunning Fox had a war dance. All the young 
warriors put on their war paint and feathers and 
sang and danced and shouted madly. The camp was 
full of war, and White Chief was sick at heart. 

Cunning Fox did not ask White Chief to take part 
in the war dance, but sent him to lead all the hunts. 
When he came back to the camp, tired and hungry, 
dragging a big deer, the lazy warriors would eat it 
and laugh at him because he would not fight. 

One night when Cunning Fox and his warriors had 
eaten the greater part of White Chief’s kill, Yellow 
Butterfly slipped quietly to White Chief’s side and 
gave him a corn cake she had made. No one knew 
that Cunning Fox saw this, but his eyes were ever 
upon Yellow Butterfly. 

He said, “I will send the paleface into the forest 
and have one of the braves shoot him from behind a 
tree.” 

Cunning Fox told his plan to Wild Hare. Wild 
Hare could not refuse to do what the Chief asked, 
but he would not kill his old playmate. Instead of 
coming back with White Chief’s scalp, he made a 
noise that warned White Chief. Then Wild Hare 
told Cunning Fox that the Great Spirit was a friend 
to White Chief and told him when he was in danger. 

Cunning Fox came to believe that White Chief was 


112 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


protected by the Great Spirit, for he came home safe 
day after day, although Cuiming Fox sent him into 
very dangerous places. 

Once White Chief started off in a birch-bark canoe 
and was caught in a whirlpool on the river, but he 
was such a strong and splendid swimmer that he got 
safely to the bank. 

Cunning Fox was planning to attack the white 
people who had a fort about two miles farther north 
where two rivers joined. These white people had 
never wronged the Indians. They lived in their 
cabins scattered about and had always been kind to 
the red men. White Chief and his braves sometimes 
stopped at the cabins. He liked to see the fireplaces 
like the one his mother used to have. He liked to 
speak a few words of English with the white women. 

Twice Cunning Fox had led his warriors out to 
make an attack on these settlers, but both times he 
found them safe in the fort where his Indian arrows 
could do no harm. Someone had given them warning. 
The first time he thought the whites had scouts out, 
but the next time he suspected White Chief. 

White Chief always sat in the Indian councils un¬ 
less he was away on a hunting trip. Next night when 
they went away in their war paint, Cunning Fox left 
an Indian brave to watch White Chief. But White 


TROUBLE WITH THE WHITE PEOPLE 113 

Chief sat the whole evening making Indian arrows. 

“Where is Yellow Butterfly?” asked Gentle Fawn 
when the warriors were gone. 

The old women said, “ Yellow Butterfly is lying in 
her buffalo robe fast asleep.” 

“She is gone,” said Gentle Fawn. “Her robe is 
on the ground, but Yellow Butterfly is not there.” 

She went to ask White Chief as he sat making- 
arrows by the fire. 

“Do not fear,” he said. “I will find Yellow But¬ 
terfly.” 

But he did not move, for he knew the Indian 
brave was watching everything he did. 

Soon the call of a night bird sounded close by in the 
forest and White Chief made a sign to Gentle Fawn. 

“Look again,” he whispered. “Yellow Butterfly 
is safe asleep.” 

Sure enough, Yellow Butterfly was rolled up in 
her buffalo robe fast asleep. 

In a few hours the warriors returned to camp. 
They were very angry. The white people had been 
warned again and were all in the fort. Spies had 
watched White Chief all day. They knew he could 
not have given the warning. Who could have done it ? 

Cunning Fox was very grim. He said, “White 
Chief must be killed. I will do it myself.” 


114 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


CHAPTER XVII 
SOME NEW SETTLERS 

There was another new cabin in the white settle¬ 
ment. It was some distance from the fort. The man 
and his wife who lived in it both had white hair. 
There was a son with them about fifteen years old. 
They called him Ned. 

Their white neighbors were very kind to them. 
They helped them to build their cabin and warned 
them to look out for the Indians. 

Ned was as large and strong as a man. He brought 
in the logs for the fireplace and did much of the other 
work, for his father did not seem very strong. One 
evening as they were settled in their new home in 
front of the bright blaze a neighbor came in to talk. 

“The Indians seem to be giving us more trouble 
than usual this fall,” said the man. “They tell me 
at the fort that Chief Cunning Fox has said he will 
drive away every white family before spring. You 
must come to the fort at once whenever you have the 
warning, for the only way to fight them is to stand 
together.” 

“I hope the Indians will not frighten us away as 
they did when we lived on the other side of the 



SOME NEW SETTLERS 


115 


mountain,” said Ned. “I 
can just remember when 
we left there after Davy 
was lost.” 

“Davy was our oldest 
son,” said Mrs. Drum¬ 
mond, “and he was stolen 
by the Indians.” 

There was the sad look on her face that always 
came when she thought of her lost boy. 

“That was very sad,” said the visitor. “Will you 
tell me about it?” 

“We have never given up hope of finding him,” 
said Mr. Drummond, “although it is eight years since 
we saw him.” 

“We should* hardly know him now,” said Mrs. 
Drummond. 1 i He was a lad of eleven, and this winter 
he will be nineteen years old.” 

“We can always tell him by a mark on his shoulder. 
He was so proud of the arrow and the deer’s horn,” 
said Ned. 

“I used to tell him it was the sign of a great 
hunter,” said Mr. Drummond, “and the boy was a 
wonderful shot.” 

“It seems like yesterday that I saw Davy and his 
father start off over the mountains to hunt,” said 




116 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


Mrs. Drummond. “Davy was so happy, and then 
his father came back without him. That was when 
my hair got so white.” 

“It was like this,” said Mr. Drummond, when the 
visitor had again asked for the story. “We had made 
camp and I was sick one morning. Davy said he 
would go after some water, because I had a burning 
fever. I must have slept all day and all night, 
because that is all I can remember about it. I awoke 
the next morning, but there was no sign of Davy. I 
found his gun, so I knew he had not meant to go far. 
I was very weak, but I managed to fire the gun sev¬ 
eral times. I hoped lie would hear it. I was too sick 
that day to go to hunt him, but the next morning I 
felt better and started off. I fired the gun again and 
again and called his name over and over. I hunted 
for several days and always came back to the camp 
at night to see if he had returned. Here I had left 
a stone with a mark on it, telling him I would return. 

“One morning I found the spot where there had 
been an Indian camp, but the Indians had been gone 
several days. It looked as if they had moved sud¬ 
denly. I knew they must have stolen Davy, but I 
could not hope to get him back alone. So I started 
back over the mountain for help. 

“When I got home his mother was sick, and by 


SOME NEW SETTLERS 


117 


the time I got some of my neighbors to help and went 
back over the mountain, all traces of the Indians 
were gone. I knew that Davy was a brave and clever 
lad and kept hoping he would escape and come back 
to us; but winter came on and there was no word of 
him, although I talked to all the traders. 

“The next spring a tribe of Indians came from the 
south and drove us out of the country. They burned 
our cabin and the cornfields. I was wounded in the 
leg and did not get well for months.’’ 

Mr. Drummond stopped and wiped away the tears. 
Mrs. Drummond was also weeping quietly. 

4 6 1 was a little fellow, ’ ’ said Ned. “ But I remember 
how we had to run for our lives, and some of the 
neighbors had to carry father.” 

“We went back east,” said Mrs. Drummond, “and 
we prospered, but something has been calling us to 
the west again. It is the hope that we may yet find 
our lost son. A trader who came back told us of a 
young Indian with blue eyes that he once met in this 
region. That is* why we are here.” 

“I know of no white lad among our Indians here,” 
said their guest. “But I think you’ll find him. He 
was old enough to remember his home. You may 
paint a white man’s face and make him! wear a scalp 
lock, but you can never make him an Indian at heart.” 


118 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


“Davy has not forgotten his mother,’’ said Mrs. 
Drummond. “I know some day I shall see him 
again.” 

A few nights later the Drummond family sat about 
the fire. Mr. Drummond and Ned were making 
wooden tools, and Mrs. Drummond was getting food 
ready for the early breakfast. 

There was a sudden tapping on the door. Ned 
seized the gun that always rested on the deer’s horns 
over the door. 

“Who is there?” he shouted, as he put out the 
latchstring. 

There was no answer. They all listened a minute 
before Mr. Drummond opened the door. A slender 
little Indian maid stood on the step, looking into 
their faces. 

“What do you want?” asked Mr. Drummond. 

“Indians! Indians! Go!” said the girl, pointing 
toward the fort. 

“Are the Indians going to attack us?” asked Ned. 
“Is that what you are trying to tell us?” 

The girl nodded and pointed toward the fort. 

“ Go! ” she repeated. 4 6 Indians! Indians! ’ ’ 

“She has come to warn us. Get the powder and 
come,” said Mr. Drummond. 

Mrs. Drummond was already packing food in some 


SOME NEW SETTLERS 


119 


ran toward the fort. 
He watched every tree 
lest there be an Indian 
in hiding, but he could 
see no signs of the red 


blankets. Ned kept clo; 
side her with his gun as 



men. 


“Ran as fast as she could* 


When they reached the fort they saw many other 
white families coming from all directions. They had 
all been warned by the fleet-footed Indian girl. Some 
of the mothers were carrying small children and all 
were scared and out of breath. 

The fort was a large place enclosed with logs. The 
walls reached high above their heads. The men could 
fire their guns through the openings between the logs. 

A few of the men were put on guard to watch while 
the rest of the people slept. Mrs. Drummond could 
not sleep. 

She listened all night long for the terrible Indian 
war whoop. 

While the white people were hurrying toward the 
fort, Yellow Butterfly wrapped her robe about her 
closely and ran as fast as she could toward the Indian 
camp. She knew the warriors were coming by the 
river, so she was careful to return through the woods. 


120 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


When she came near enough to the lodge to be 
heard she gave the call of the night bird that White 
Chief knew. In a few minutes she was rolled in her 
blanket fast asleep. 

Poor little Yellow Butterfly was very unhappy. 
Gentle Fawn wanted her to be the squaw of Cunning 
Fox. 

“How can an Indian maiden refuse to be the 
squaw of the Chief V’ asked Gentle Fawn. 

But Yellow Butterfly said to herself that she would 
never marry Cunning Fox. She would warn the pale¬ 
faces. They were White Chief’s people. She was 
not afraid. Some day she would run away with 
White Chief. They would go to his people and they 
would never come back. 

Meantime, the Indian warriors prowled around the 
cabins, and the white people stood guard at the fort 
all night. But the Indians were not ready to attack 
the fort. 

“But they will come soon,” said the older white 
men. “They are all ready. These warnings must 
be heeded. We will sleep in the fort every night until 
all is quiet again.” 


DAVY DRUMMOND COMES HOME 


121 


CHAPTER XVIII 

DAVY DRUMMOND COMES HOME 

One evening when White Chief went out to hunt, 
Cunning Fox followed with his strong bow. He kept 
to the left of White Chief and slipped first behind one 
tree and then another. He took care to keep out of 
sight. 

White Chief was following a turkey gobbler that 
flew from the branches of one tree to another. He 
did not know that Cunning Fox was near. To the 
right, safely hidden by the bushes, there was another 
silent figure watching White Chief. She crept close 
to the ground and kept her eye on every move of Cun¬ 
ning Fox. 

White Chief was taking careful aim at the turkey 
above his head, when clear and shrill sounded the 
note of the night bird. He looked quickly over his 
shoulder and saw Cunning Fox raise his bow and 
aim an arrow at him. The warning was too late. A 
terrible pain seized White Chief in the shoulder and 
he fell to the ground. 

Cunning Fox slipped behind a tree and watched 
White Chief a few minutes. He did not want anyone 
to know he had killed the paleface. White Chief did 


122 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


not move, and Cunning Fox thought he was dead. 

“He will never warn the palefaces again. He will 
not have Yellow Butterfly for his squaw!” said Cun¬ 
ning Fox, as he crept away to the lodge. 

For a time White Chief lay without moving. His 
arm pained him so badly that he could not get to his 
feet. He got up on his knees and looked about. As 
he rose, a little figure stole from the bushes and came 
toward him. She looked all about to be sure she was 
not seen. Yellow Butterfly called White Chief’s 
name softly and stopped the wound with a leaf the 
Indians use. She told White Chief to lie still while 
she ran for help. 

Swiftly Yellow Butterfly’s moccasins flew toward 
the white settlement. It was not far to the new cabin 
in the clearing. Yellow Butterfly remembered this 
cabin. The woman had a kind face. Yellow Butter¬ 
fly would ask her for help. 

Mrs. Drummond was getting the evening meal and 
had hung some venison over the fireplace to cook, 
when she saw an Indian girl in the doorway. It was 
the same girl who had warned them of the Indian 
attack. Mrs. Drummond’s heart beat very fast. 
Were the Indians coming again? Ned and his father 
were away. But Yellow Butterfly only beckoned to 
her and said, “Come.” 


DAVY DRUMMOND COMES HOME 


123 


Mrs. Drummond was still more frightened. Had 
something happened to Ned? She pulled the meat 
away from the fire and followed the Indian girl as 
fast as she could. 

She could hardly keep Yellow Butterfly in sight 
as the girl flashed through the trees. Soon they were 
both bending over a wounded Indian boy with a 
bleeding shoulder. 

“Help!” said Yellow Butterfly. 

White Chief was very ill. He only knew that some¬ 
one had come to care for him. Together the Indian 
girl and the white woman managed to drag him over 
the ground until they reached the cabin. They placed 
him on some robes on the floor, while Yellow But¬ 
terfly ran for water. He was now sure to receive the 
best treatment. 

Mrs. Drummond was a good nurse. She knew how 
to care for wounds. With a sharp knife she cut away 
White Chief’s robe and began to wash the wound. 
What white skin this Indian had! His body was not 
much darker than Ned’s, she thought. Suddenly 
Mrs. Drummond began to feel very strange. Who 
could this be? There was a mark on his shoulder— 
the mark she knew so well. The very mark of the 
deer’s horn and the arrow that had been on Davy’s 
shoulder! She looked more closely at the Indian 


124 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


boy’s face. White Chief opened his eyes. Then she 
knew him. 

“Oh, Davy, Davy!” she cried. 

Yellow Butterfly had come back and stood gazing 
in the doorway. “White Chief has found his 
people,” she thought. “Now he is safe.” 

Without a word she placed the gourd of water on 
the floor and slipped aw r ay. 

For several days Davy was too ill to know where 
he was. Ned stayed with him at night in the dark¬ 
ened cabin while his father and mother went to the 
fort. As soon as Davy began to improve, his mother 
told him very gently who she was. She fed him 
venison broth and nursed him very 
carefully. In a week he was able 
to go to the fort. Everyone was 
proud of the lad, because all knew 
it was through him that they 
had been saved from the In¬ 
dian tomahawk. 

There were only 
about fifty white 
men in the settle¬ 
ment, but all had 
guns and a good 
“Then she knew him” Supply of powder. 



DAVY DRUMMOND COMES HOME 125 

Davy felt sure the Indians would attack them very 
soon. 

Ned was on guard the next night, and Davy begged 
him to be very watchful. Well he knew how silently 
the Indian warriors could creep up to the fort. With¬ 
out a sound or a shadow as a warning, their war 
whoops would suddenly be heard and the attack 
would be made before the sleeping whites could seize 
their guns. 

Davy did not sleep at all that night. He was not 
well enough to stand guard, but he could use his 
trained ears. Years in an Indian lodge had made 
them very keen. He understood every sound. 

The sound of a night bird, repeated three times, 
was heard in the forest. Davy sat up very straight. 
The night bird’s notes were repeated three times 
more. 

“Little Yellow Butterfly,” he said to himself. 
“Brave little girl!” 

“Ned,” he called aloud. “Ned, they are coming!” 

The fort was soon aroused and all the guns were 
ready. None too soon, for without further warning 
the savage war whoop sounded and from behind 
every tree flew arrows and balls from the Indian 
bows and guns. 

Mr. Drummond was wounded in the first few 


126 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


minutes and another white man was killed. Now it 
was a life-and-death battle. The attack seemed to be 
aimed at ‘the front of the fort, but Davy knew the 
ways of the Indians. He forgot his wound and placed 
himself where he could watch for anyone at the rear 
of the fort. 

Soon he saw the dark figure of a red man, with his 
face covered, creeping close to the corner of the fort, 
which was unguarded. In his hand was a flaming 
torch. 

With great pain Davy climbed up the inner side 
of the walls of the fort and hurled a stone hatchet 
with sure aim at the In¬ 
dian ’s head. Over he went, 
and the torch flickered out. 
jteut Davy still watched. 
Now they were driving 
the Indians back from the 
front of the fort. First 
one red man fell and then 
another. Arrows fell with¬ 
in the walls of the fort. 
Women and children hud¬ 
dled in the corners, pro¬ 
tected by shelves of rails. 
“Hurled ia stone hatchet” Three of the white men 




DAVY DRUMMOND COMES HOME 127 

were wounded. Mrs. Drummond forgot her fear. 
With her tender hands she cared for the wounded, 
one by one. 

In an hour the Indians began to disappear. All 
was quiet. Ned and two other white men ventured 
forth to see if they were really gone. Davy crept out 
to look at the face of the Indian he had killed, but the 
other Indians had carried the body away. On the 
ground were a few arrows. He picked up one. Back 
within the fort he looked at it closely. It had the 
mark of Cunning Fox. 

Then Davy knew how much he was suffering from 
his wounded arm. He fell in a heap, and Mrs. Drum¬ 
mond came at once to care for him. 

A scouting party was sent out the next day. The 
Indian lodge was deserted. The Indians had moved 
farther west in the night. 

******* 

Three days later Davy sat by the fire talking to his 
mother. His wound was slow in healing. * It made 
his arm quite helpless. They were talking of the 
many things that had happened in all the long years 
he had been away from her. 

Davy told her of Brave Badger and the long trip 
they had made over the mountains. 

“Good old Brave Badger!” he said. “He is as 


128 


LITTLE WHITE CHIEF 


much like a brother as Ned. Now that Cunning Pox 
is gone, the Indians will trouble us no longer.” 

“How happy we should be!” said Mrs. Drummond. 
“We have you safe at home and our enemies are 
gone.” 

But Davy did not reply. His face was sad, and his 
mother wondered if he were really longing for his 
life with the red men. There was something Davy 
had not told his mother. He was thinking of Yellow 
Butterfly. 

What had become of the loving little Indian 
maiden ? 

When he got well he would 
follow the Indians to their 
lodge and find her. 

Just then there was the 
sound of a night bird’s note 
in the clearing. Davy got up 
quickly. There was a tap on 
the door. His mother opened 
it, and in walked Yellow 
Butterfly. 

She looked up into Mrs. 
Drummond’s face. 

“White Chief’s squaw!” 
yas^dl she said. 



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